Book 



AUREiE SENTEJSfTI^: 

SELECT SENTENCES 

TRANSCRIBED FROM 

| 1 I 

SUNDRY EMINENT DIVINES, 

AND 

(Bfbtx W&xitm; 

WITH SOME SUITABLE TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE. 
BY THOMAS STRATTON 

WITH 

AN APPENDIX, 

Containing, with other Matter, 

M'Laurins celebrated Discourse on the Cross of Christ. 



LONDON: 
PRINTED FOR EDWARD POWELL. 

OF KNIGKTSBRIDGE, 
TOR GRATUITOUS DISTRIBUTION. 

MDCCCXXII. 



315' 



TO THE READER. 



When I consider the sad and deplorable 
decay of vital— heart religion among professors of 
this day, with that conformity to the evil— sinful 
customs of the world which is found amongst us ; 
I think it may be ascribed, among other causes, 
to that dreadful apostacy from those funda- 
mental doctrines of the gospel which are the 
glory of the Christian religion, and for which our 
forefathers suffered the severest persecution, even 
to death. But, alas ! how is the gold become 
dim ! how is the fine gold changed ! A genera- 
tion is risen up, who have forsaken the God of 
their fathers, and the everlasting truths of the 



iv TO THE READER. 

gospel; those doctrines which tend to debase 
the creature, and to exalt the rich, free, sovereign 
grace of God ; and in the room thereof have sub- 
stituted those which tend only to exalt the vain- 
glorious pride of sinful depraved man; and to 
ascribe unto him such a power and freedom of 
will as was never yet found in any mere man 
since Adam. And what is the consequence? 
We plainly see it in the decay of vital religion in 
the lives of such persons as have forsaken the 
good old doctrines. And it remains an incon- 
testable truth, that wherever the doctrines of the 
gospel are forsaken, the power of religion will 
decline. Woeful experience may convince us of 
it in the day wherein we live. 

Wherefore I judged it not altogether a useless 
design to transcribe some passages which I have, 
in my course of many years reading, collected 
from the writings of sundry eminent divines and 
others, chiefly of the last century, some earlier ; 
wherein we may see the judgement and senti- 



\ 

TO THE READER. V 

ments of those pious and learned divines concern- 
ing the important doctrines of the gospel, now 
almost lost among us. They show also what an 
excellent harmony there is in divine truths in the 
minds and experience of so many different per- 
sons, and at different times, and in different 
places, as proceeding all from the divine teach- 
ings of the same holy and blessed Spirit. 

God raised up and spirited those excellent 
persons with abilities and courage to declare and 
defend the truth, notwithstanding all opposition; 
not being influenced with the fear of men, which 
bringeth a snare ; but being under an awful im- 
pression of the words of the apostle, 1 Cor. ix. 
16. " Woe is me if I preach not the gospel." 

My first view, in my labour herein, was for my 
own private use; afterwards I thought they might 
be of use to my own family ; and then, upon fre- 
quent perusal of them, they appeared to me so 
excellent, so strong and striking, that I could not 



VI 



TO THE READER. 



but judge they might be acceptable and useful to 
those very, few of my Christian friends and ac- 
quaintance into whose hands they might come, 
and in whose hearts are the ways of them ; from 
many of whom, ministers as well as private 
Christians, I have received thanks, and acknow- 
ledgement of their usefulness. 

My design herein was chiefly for such persons 
who have but little inclination or leisure to read 
much. To such they may be as a little body of 
divinity. And I therefore formed the book into 
this portable size, which may be very well carried 
in the pocket; whereby persons may have fre- 
quent opportunities of dipping into them upon 
every leisure opportunity, and reading a passage 
or two, more or less, there being no necessary 
connection between them. 

The scriptures which are subjoined to these 
passages, are such as for the most part occurred 
to my thoughts in transcribing; whether the 



TO THE READER. Yll 

most pertinent I shall not say; perhaps some 
readers may think of some others more so. 

That He that ministereth seed to the sower 
may command a blessing upon them to the souls 
of the readers, is the earnest prayer of the 
transcriber. 

THO. STRATTON. 

Bonder's End, 
March 12, 1761. 



SELECT SENTENCES, 



TRANSCRIBED FROM 

SUNDRY EMINENT DIVINES, AND 
OTHER WRITERS. 



1 . IN the worst of times there is still more cause 
to complain of an evil heart, than of an evil and 
corrupt world. Prov.xxx. 2. Mr. Fleming. 

2. Bold sinning doth afterwards make faint 
believing. Ps. xxxviii. 3, 4, 5. Idem. 

'3. None are more ready to shrink in a day of 
trouble, than such who at a distance seem most 
daring. John xiii. 37. xviii. 17, 25. Idem. 

4. Places or conditions are happy or miserable, 
as God vouchsafeth his gracious presence more or 
less. Exod. xxxiii. 14, 25. Ps. cxxi. 8. 

Dr. Sibs. 

B 



2 



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5. God draweth straight lines, but we think 
and call them crooked. Ezek. xviii. 25. 

Mr. RUTHERFOORD. 

6. What unthankfulness is it to forget our 
consolations, and to look only upon matter of 
grievance ? to think so much upon two or three 
crosses, as to forget an hundred blessings 
Ps. ciii. 2. Dr Sibs. 

7. A good man suffers evil and doth good. 
Acts vii. 59, 60. 

A natural man suffers good and doth evil. 
Isa. xxvi. 10. Idem. 

8. A godly man T s comforts and grievances are 
hid from the world. Natural men are strangers 
to them. Prov. xiv. 10. Idem. 

9. If there were no enemy in the world, nor 
devil in hell, we carry that within us, that if let 
loose, will trouble us more than all the world 
beside. Rom. vii. 24. Idem. 

10. Nothing can be very ill with us when all 
is well within : we are not hurt till our souls are 
hurt. If the soul itself be out of tune, outward 
things will do us no more good than a fair shoe 
to a gouty foot. 1 Chron. iv. 10. Prov. xxv. 20. 
Matth.x. 28. Dr. Sibs, 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 3 

1 1 . What we are afraid to do before men, we 
should be afraid to think before God. Jer. xvii. 10. 

Idem. 

12. False fears bring true vexations; the imagi- 
nary grievances of our lives are more than the 
real. Ps. liii. 5. Prov. xxvi. 13. Idem. 

13. He that hath slight thoughts of sin, never 
had great thoughts of God. Ps. I. 21. 

Dr. Ovven. 

14. Riches and abundance of the earth loads 
more than it fills, and men's wealth only heightens 
their wants. The great man oftener wants a 
stomach and rest, than the poor wants meat and 
abed to lie on. Eccles. v. 10, 12. Mr. Fleming. 

15. Out of God there is nothing fit for the soul 
to stay itself upon. Jer. xvii. 5, 8. Ps. xx. 7. 

Dr. Sibs. 

16. He wants no company, who hath Christ for 
his companion. Ps. lxxiii. 25. Idem. 

17. Labour to keep out sin, and then let come 
what will come. Gen. xxxix. 9. Dan. in. 16, 
17 > 18 - Idem. 

18. The wronged side is the safer side. 
Prov. xii. 5. IdeMb 



4 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

19. Trust God and be doing, and let him alone 
with the rest. Ps. xxxvii. 3. Idem. 

20. The depths of misery are never beyond the 
depths of mercy. Ephes. ii. 4, 5. Ps. xxxiv. 
4, 5. Idem. 

21. To be morose, implacable, inexorable, and 
revengeful, is one of the greatest degeneracies of 
human nature. E ccles. vii. 9. Dr. Owen. 

22. He that would be little in temptation, let 
him be much in prayer. Matth. xxvi. 41. Idem. 

23. When a child of God wants peace, he can 
have no peace till God speaks it. Is. lvii. 19. 
Job xxxiv. 29. Dr. Goodwin. 

24. So far as any are under the power of sin, 
they are under the power of madness. Ecdes.ix. 3. 

Dr. Owen. 

25. In all worldly joys there is a secret wound. 
Prov. xiv. 13. Idem. 

26. A true believing soul cannot but be a prais- 
ing soul. Luke i. 46 to 55. Dr. Sibs. 

27. In all favors, think not of them so much as 
God's mercy and love in Christ, which sweetens 
them. Jer. xxxi. 3. Rom. viii. 32. Idem. 

28. God will be our God so long as he is 
Christ's God, and because he is Christ's God. 
John x. 29. xvii. 10, 21. Idem. 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 5 

29. The whole world cannot weigh against this 
one comfort, that God is our's. Ps. xlvi. Idem. 

30. For a sinner out of hell not to rest in the 
will of God, nor to humble himself under his 
mighty hand, is to make himself guilty of the 
especial sin of hell. Jer. xviii. 6. Rom. ix. 20. 

Dr. Owen. 

31. The grossest defilements of sin can no- 
ways stain religion and the ways of the Lord. 
Job xxxv, 6, 8. Ps. cxix. 160. Mr. Fleming. 

32. All our rest in this world is from trust in 
God. Ps. w 8. Hob. iiL 17, 18. Dr. Owen. 

33. It is our safest course in every affliction, 
to lodge the adequate cause of it in our own 
deserts. Jsa.lxiv. 6, 7. Idem. 

34. Abound in actings of faith, and we shall 
thrive in holiness. 1 John iii. Ps. xcii. 12. 

Idem. 

35. He that loves God sincerely will be like 
him. 1 John iv. 11. ■ Idem. 

36. True faith is humble, and seeth no way to 
escape but only in Christ. John vi. 68. 

Mr, RlJTHERFOORD. 

37. Grace withereth without adversity. Heb.xii. 
10, 11. Idem. 



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38. Faith makes us draw all our comforts from 
a fountain that will never fail. Heb. xiii. 5. 
Col. i. 19. John. i. 16. Mr. Halyburton. 

39. Ignorance of God and ourselves, is the 
great principle and cause of all our disquietments. 
Rom. i. 21, 22. Dr. Owen. 

40. A man can be in no condition wherein God 
is at a loss, and cannot help him. If comforts be 
wanting, he can create comforts, not only out of 
nothing, but out of discomforts. Jer. xxxii. 27. 

Dr. Sibs. 

41 . No man dare ask of God so much as he is 
ready and willing to give* James i. 5. 

Luther. 

42. When we are most ready to perish, then is 
God most ready to help. Gew.xxii. 14. Idem, 

43. It is a matter of faith not to trust to that 
which the eye seeth, but which the word pro- 
miseth. Rom. iv. 18, 19, 20. Idem. 

44. Seek to be pardoned ; but above all seek 
to be beloved. Ps. xxv. 11. Eph. iii. 19. Zeph. iii. 
17. Dr. Goodwin. 

45. They only are wise, who are wise to salva- 
tion. Job xxviii. 28. 1 Cor. i. 20, 24. Ps. cxi. 10. 

Idem* 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 



7 



46. Nothing but the death of Christ for us, 
will be the death of sin in us. Rom. v. 8. vi. 15. 

Dr. Owen. 

47. It is the glory of a Christian not to be 
faint-hearted under trials. Deut. xx. 3. ha. xl. 31. 
Heb. xxii. 3. Rev. ii. 3. Mr. Dorney. 

48. He who prays as he ought, will endeavour 
to live as he prays. Pro v. xv. 8. He that can live 
in sin, and abide in the ordinary duties of prayer, 
never prays as he ought. A truly gracious pray- 
ing frame is utterly inconsistent with the love of, 
or reserve for any sin. Ps. lxvi. 18. Dr. Owen. 

49. The least grace is a better security for 
heaven, than the greatest gifts or privileges what- 
ever. 1 Cor. xiii. 1, 13. Idem. 

50. It is not the outward profession of the 
truth, but the inward power of it, that is useful 
unto the world or the souls of men. Rev. iii. 1. 

Idem. 

51. Let all seen enjoyments lead you to the un- 
seen Fountain whence they flow. 2 Cor. iv. 18. 
Jer. xxxi. 3. Mr. Halyburton. 

52. If once we are sure God hath done a 
thing, there is no room left to dispute its equity. 
Gen. xviii. 25. Rom. ix. 20, 21. , Idem. 



8 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

53. We are never engaged to love till the 
Lord's kindness draw us. Hos. xi. 4. Cant. i. 4. 
2 Cor. v. 14. Idem> 

54. Men are out of their right minds till they 
come by faith and repentance to Christ Jesus. 
Luke xv. 17. 1 Cor. vi. 11. Mr. Bain. 

55. It is a sign some beam of heavenly wisdom 
hath shined into that soul, which findeth itself 
empty of true saving wisdom. John xvi. 8, 9. 
2Cor.iv.6. Idem. 

56. Unreasonable fears are the sins of our hearts 
as truly as they are thorns in our sides ; they grieve 
the Holy Spirit. Isa. xlix. 14. 

Mr. Dan. Burgess. 

57. The field which hath millions of weeds in it, 
is a corn-field for all that. Isa. lvii. 17, 18. 
Jer.xiv.7. Idem. 

58. He that exclaims, I am dead, expresseth a 
conceit he refuteth. Ps. Ixxxviii. 5, 8. Idem. 

59. One rose upon a bush, though but a little 
one, and though not yet blown, proves that which 
bears it to be a true rose tree. Lev. ii. 13, 14. 
iii. 8. Mr.DAN. Burgess. 



60. As soon shall heavenly joy enter hell, as a 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 9 

presumptuous sinner's heart. Deut. xxix. 19, 20. 
Isa. xxvi. 12. lvii. 21. Idem. 

61. A godly man best knows what true and 
solid pleasure is. Ps. cxix. 165. Prov. iii. 17. 
Luke x. 20. Mr. Fleming. 

62. How sweet is his smile, in whose counte- 
nance heaven lyeth ! Ps. xxi. 6. Ixiii. 3. Idem. 

63. They who are not some way or other under 
the power of a design to be like unto God, are 
every way like the devil. 1 Cor. xv. 48. Eph. v. 8, 
1 Pe^.ii. 9, 82. Dr. Owen. 

64. If prayer do not constantly endeavour the 
ruin of sin, sin will ruin prayer. Job xxvii. 10, 
To live in sin, and yet to believe the forgiveness of 
sin, is utterly impossible. Ps. lxvi. 18, 19. 

Idem. 

65. A constant design after the not being of 
sin, is a blessed evidence of a saving faith, 
Ps.lxvi. 18, 19. Dr. Owen. 

66. Sin may entangle the mind and disorder 
the affections, and yet not be prevalent ; but when 
it hath laid hold on the will, it hath the mastery. 
Jam. i. 14, 15. Idem. 



67 . He that hath tasted the bitterness of sin 
b 2 



10 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



will fear to commit it, and he that hath felt the 
sweetness of mercy will fear to offend it. Rom. vi. 
1, 2. 2 Cor. v. 14. Mr. Charnock. 

68. The guilt of one sin is a greater misery 
than the burden of a thousand crosses. Heb. xu 
25. , Idem. 

69. We cannot begin to lead a holy life, till we 
first look to Christ for pardon of sin. Luke i. 74, 
75. Mr.THo. Cole. 

70. Repentance is the greatest honour next to 
innocence. 2 Cor. vii. 10. Idem, 

71. The comfort of a Christian lyeth not in his 
own fulness, but in Christ's. John i. 16. Phil. iv. 
13. Idem. 

72. He that lives in sin and expects happiness 
hereafter, is like him that soweth cockle and 
thinks to fill his barn with wheat or barley. Luke 
vi. 44. Gal vi. 7,8. Mr. John Bunyan. 

73. One leak will sink a ship, and one sin will 
destroy a sinner. Gen. ii. 17. Ezek. xviii. 4. 

Idem. 

74. A sense of God's presence in love, is suffi- 
cient to rebuke all anxiety and fears in the worst 
and most dreadful condition. Ps. xxiii. 4. Hab. 
iii. 17. 18. Dr. Owen. 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 11 



75. One minute sooner than God's time, would 
not be his people's mercy. Exod.xiiAl. Ps.xxxi. 
15. Mr. Fleming. 

76. Do all, suffer all, expect all, as being in 
Christ, and not otherwise. John xv. 5. Phil. iv. 
13. Mr. Elisha Cole. 

77. Men, left to their own wills, will rather go 
to hell than be beholden to free grace for salva- 
tion* John v. 40. Idem. 

78. Better to be a lost sheep than a goat or 
swine. Matth.x.26. Mr. Marshal. 

79. He thatthinks to draw saving graces out of 
natural principles, but spins out his bowels to die 
in his own web. Rom. viii. 8. 

Mr. Elisha Cole. 

80. A believer's heel may be bruised, but his 
vital parts are out of reach. Zech. ii. 8. 1 John v. 
IB. Idem. 

81. He that believeth the gospel with hearty 
love and liking, as the most excellent truth, will 
certainly with the like heartiness believe on Christ 
for his salvation. 1 Thes. i. 5, 9, 10. 

Mr. Marshal. 

82. Praying only for carnal things, shews a 



12 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



carnal heartland leaves it carnal. Hos. vii. 14. 
Jam. iv. 3. Idem. 

83. It is in vain for God to put off the soul that 
seeks Him, his kingdom, his righteousness, with 
lesser things: He knows that cannot be. Ps. 
Ixxiii. 25. Mr. Tho. Cole. 

84. To put on the name of Christ, and not to 
walk in the ways of Christ, what is it else than to 
prevaricate with the divine name? Tit. i. 16. 

Cyprian. 

85. He is wise enough who hath learned the 
gospel : he is altogether out of his senses who 
seeks saving knowledge any where else ; for here 
are all treasures. 2 Tim. iii. 15, 16. 

Bp. Davenant. 

86. From all past ages, before time began to 
flow, God decreed to confer the grace of salva- 
tion by Christ upon us. Matth. xxv. 34. John 
xvii. 6, 9, 23. Mr. John Calvin. 

87. In the name of Jesus the whole gospel lies 
hid : this name is the light, food, and medicine of 
the soul. Song i. 3. Glassius. 

88. Job was happier on the dunghill than Adam 
in paradise. Job xix. 25, 26, 27. Ps. xlix. 20. 
O how happily did I fall in Adam, who, after my 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 13 

fall, arose more happily in Christ. Rom. v. 17, 19. 

Augustine. 

89. No man can rejoice in this life and that 
which is to come : there is a necessity that he 
who would possess the one must lose the other. 
1 John ii. 16. Heb. xi. 25, 26. Luke xvi. 13. 

Idem. 

90. Lowliness of mind is not a flower that 
grows in the field of nature, but is planted by the 
finger of God in a renewed heart, and learned of 
the lowly Jesus. Matth. xi. 29. 

Mr. Boston. 

91. Grace makes a heart-memory, even where 
there is no good head-memory. Ps. cxix. 11. 

Idem. 

92. In vain do men pretend to religion while 
ungodly company is their choice. Prov. xiii. 20. 
Ps. cxix. 63. Idem. 

93. It is safer to be humble with one talent, 
than proud with ten, yea better to be a humble 
worm than a proud angel. Jam. iv. 6. Prov. xvi. 
19. xxix. 23. Mr. Flavel. 

94. He that is contented with just grace enough 
to get to heaven and escape hell, and desires no 
more, may be sure he hath none at all, and is far 



14 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



from being made partaker of the divine nature. 
Psalm li. 6. xl. 8. 1 John iii. 3. 

Mr. John Janeway. 

95. All our present glory consists in our pre- 
paration for future glory. Col. i. 12. 

Dr. Owen. 

96. God is faithful, who hath made himself a 
debtor to us, not by receiving any thing at our 
hands, but by promising all things to us. Heb. xi. 
11. Augustine. 

97. He is no Christian who believes not that 
faith in the person of Christ is the spring of all 
evangelical obedience. 2 Cor. v. 14. 

Dr. Owen. 

98. Live not so much upon the comforts of 
God, as upon the God of comforts. Ps. lxiii. 3. 

Mr. Mason. 

99. Poor worldlings ! what will ye do when the 
span-length of your forenoon's laughter is ended, 
and when the weeping side of providence is turned 
to you ? Luke vi. 24. Mr. Rutherfoord. 

100. Old age, and waxing old as a garment, is 
written on the fairest face of the creation. Ps. cii. 
26. Id em. 

101. What misery to have both a bad way all 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 15 

the day, and no hopes of lodging at night. Prov. 
xiv. 12,32. Idem. 

102. Sin's joys are but night-dreams, thoughts, 
imaginations, and shadows. Rom. vi. 21. Eccles. 
U 7, 8, 9, 10. Mr. Rutherfoord. 

103. Having gotten Christ, it is not possible to 
keep him peaceable, except the devil were dead. 
1 Pet. v. 7, 8, 9. I DEM . 

104. If there were no other argument for the 
corruption of our nature, the cold and indifferent 
way that we praise Goo for Christ, is a demonstra- 
tion of it. Isa. liii. 1. Mr. M'Laurin. 

105. He is no true believer to whom sin is not 
the greatest burden, sorrow, and trouble. Rom. 
vii - 24. Dr. Owen. 

106. He that loves Jesus Christ most, is most 
like unto God. John xvi. 27. Idem. 

107. A may-be of mercy is a sufficient ground 
for our reliance, and a support of the soul upon 
God. 2 Kings xix. 4. Zeph. ii. 3. Amos v. 15. 

Mr. Bridge. 

108. He is too covetous whom God cannot 
suffice : he hath all things who hath him that hath 
all things. Rom. viii. 32. Idem. 



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109. Such as know God's glorious holiness, and 
their own sorry righteousness, will despair of 
themselves, and never venture with their briers 
and thorns upon a consuming fire. Isa. xxvii. 4, 
5. Heb. vi. 8; Phil. iii. 8. Mr. Jenks. 

110. Faith takes hold on something that is 
material, and makes the soul triumph in hope. 
Heb. ix. 1. Mr. Tho. Cole. 

111. Internal conformity unto the habitual 
grace and holiness of Christ, is the fundamental 
design of a Christian life. Rom.Vm. 29. xii. 2. 
1 Pet. ii. 22. Dr. Owen. 

112. A Godlike man is the only Godly man ; a 
Christlike nature brought into the soul doth only 
denominate a man a true Christian. Phil. ii. 5. 
1 Pet. iv. 1. Mr. Shaw. 

113. An atheist, that denies the being of God, 
doth not so much affront him as a natural man that 
owns his being, but walks as if there was no God, 
as if he were not a just and righteous God. Tit. i. 
16. Rom. ii. Mr. Charnock. 

114. God's word only is our true religion, as 
the divine rule ; but our confessions, books, words, 
and lives, shew how we understand it. Isa. liii. 1. 
Hos. xiv. 9. Isa. xxix. 11, 12. Mr. Tho. Cole. 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 



17 



115. It is not perhaps so heinous an idolatry to 
set up a graven image, a senseless and a sinless 
stock or stone, as for a man to set up his own sin- 
ful, corrupt affections, and devote himself to a 
compliance with them in opposition to the righte- 
ous will of God. Jer. xliv. 16, 17, 28. 

Mr. Charnock. 

116. A real inclination of soul to seek after the 
precepts of God, to do and to walk after them, is 
an infallible sign of a child of God. Ps. cxix. 94. 

Mr. Tho. Cole. 

117. The vilest thing is sin, the basest thing is 
a sinner; yea, sinners are not properly creatures 
of God ; s making, but are vile things of the devil's 
and their own making, the only shameful thing in 
God's world. When a sinner hath his eyes 
opened to see himself, he loaths himself, and 
thinks he is enough to pollute and defile and bur- 
den the whole creation of God ; he abhors him- 
self, and thinks that every one, especially the 
godly, should abhor him too ; but mainly he thinks 
and judges himself most justly loathsome to God. 
Rom. vii. 24. Ps. xxxviii. 4, 5. Prov. xxx. 2. 

Mr. Trail, 

118. Sin not only debaseth the soul, but defiles 
it also ; and indeed there is nothing else that can 



IB SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



defile it. Mat. xv. 20. For the soul is a most 
pure beam, bearing the image of the Father of 
lights ; as far surpassing the sun in pureness as the 
sun doth a clod of earth; and yet all the dirt in 
the world cannot defile the sun ; all the clouds 
that seek to muffle it, it scatters them all : but sin 
hath defiled the soul ; yea, one sin, the least, de- 
files it in an instant, totally, eternally. Eccles. vii. 
25. Ps. li. 5. 1 John Hi. 8. Dr. Goodwin. 

119. By the death of Christ we are greatly 
stirred up, both to a caution against, and a detes- 
tation of sin: for that must needs be deadly which 
could be healed no other way than by the death 
of Christ. Who therefore, seriously considering 
that his sins could be no other ways expiated than 
by the death of the Son of God himself, would 
not tremble to tread as it were this most precious 
blood under foot by daily sinning ! 2 Cor. v. 14. 
1 Pet. i. 19. Heb. ix. 14, 28. x. 4, 5. 

Bp. Davenant. 

120. Adam, turning aside from that straight 
line prescribed to him, lost, for himself and all his 
posterity, that beauty of the image of God after 
which he was created ; and, while by an impass- 
able way he affected a forbidden equality with 
the Deity, was made most like to the devil, and, 
like that malignant spirit, by his own evil act de« 



EMINENT DIVINES, kc. 19 

formed himself, than which, nothing more horrid 
or filthy can be conceived. The soul of a sinner 
is a horrible monster, without form and without 
light ; nothing there but mere darkness, mere con- 
fusion ; all things torn and thrown down, nothing 
rightly placed ; first things take the place of last, 
and lowest things of highest. If any one could 
have a clear view of himself, according to his in- 
ward disposition, in an undeceiving glass, he 
would fly from himself as from the most frightful 
apparition, with the utmost horror. And indeed, 
if holiness be the most beautiful ornament of the 
divine perfections, that must needs be most filthy 
which is not only most unlike to that beauty, but 
is diametrically opposite thereunto. This is that 
filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness mentioned 
by James, chap. i. 21, by which it comes to pass 
that man is abominable to God, who cannot but 
turn away the glorious eyes of his most pure holi- 
ness from him. Job xxv. 4. Ps. xlv. 7. 

Herman Witsius. 
121. But and if I was conceived in iniquity, 
and in sin my mother nourished me in her womb, 
where, I pray thee, O my God, where and when, 
O Lord, was I, thy servant, innocent ? Ps. li. 5. 
Iviii. 3. Augustine. 



^~ 122. Who is there that considered! aright the 



20 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

vanity, darkness, and ignorance of his mind, the 
perverseness and stubbornness of his will, with 
the disorder, irregularity, and distemper of his 
affections, with respect unto things spiritual and 
heavenly, who is not ashamed of, who doth not 
abhor himself? This is that which hath given our 
nature its leprosy, and defiled it throughout. And 
he who hath no experience of spiritual shame and 
self-abhorrency on account of this inconformity 
of his nature, and the faculties of his soul, unto 
the holiness of God, is a great stranger to the 
whole work of sanctification. Who is there that 
can recount the unsteadiness of his mind in holy 
meditation, his low and unbecoming conceptions 
of God's excellencies, his proneness to foolish 
imaginations and vanities that profit not, his 
aversion to spirituality in duty and fixedness in 
communion with God, his proneness to things 
sensual and evil, all arising from the spiritual 
irregularity of our natural faculties ; but if ever 
he had any due apprehensions of divine purity and 
holiness, that is not sensible of his own vileness 
and baseness, and is not oftentimes deeply affected 
with shame thereon ? Isa. lxiv. 6. Dan. ix. 4. 

Dr. Owen. 

123. Sinful man is not only blind, but is in love 
with his blindness ; he boasts that he sees when 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 21 



he is most of all blind, and with all his might re- 
sists that true light/ which by the works of divine 
providence, by the word of God, and some spark- 
ling beams of the Spirit, most kindly offers itself. 
John ix. 40, 4L Mr. Herm. Witsius. 

124. The Son of God bearing the punishment 
of the sins of the elect and believers in our na- 
ture, declares the sinfulness of sin more than 
the torments of hell will, where wicked men and 
angels shall suffer the punishment of their own 
sins to all eternity. 1 And sinners going to Christ 
for justification, sanctification, and salvation, by 
his righteousness and Spirit, includes an acknow- 
ledgment,/ 1. that they deserve damnation; 2. 
that of all creatures, except devils, they are 
farthest from the kingdom of heaven. ; Luke xv. 
18, 19,21. Mr. Glascock. 

125. There is no greater discovery of the depra- 
vation of our natures by sin, and degeneracy of 
our wills from their original rectitude, than that, 
whereas we are so prone to the love of other 
things, and therein do seek for satisfaction to our 
souls, where it is not to be obtained, it is so hard 

■p" and difficult to raise our souls unto the love of 
God. Were it not for that depravation, Hewould 
%S always appear as the only suitable and satisfactory 



22 



SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



object unto our souls and affections. Ps. xvi. 11. 
2 Tim. in. 4. Jer. ii. 25. Dr. Owen 

126. Who is there that hath a serious reverence 
of God, with any due apprehensions of his holi- 
ness, and a clear conviction of the evil nature of 
sin, who is not able to call over such actings in 
childhood (which most think meet to connive at) 
wherein they may remember that perversity where- 
of they are now ashamed? Job xiii. 26. xx. 11. 

Idem. 

127. Men's sins are innumerable, yet they are 
but cyphers to the vast sums of grace which are 
every day expended ; because they are finite, but 
mercy is infinite. Rom. v. 20. Ps. ciii. 17. 

Mr. Charnock. 

128. What should a sinner do, but go to Christ? 
what can come of a sinner if Christ receive him 
not? yea, what is a Saviour of sinners for, but for 
receiving sinners and saving them from their sins? 
and yet sinners coming unto Christ, and Christ's 
welcoming of them, makes unbelievers murmur 
both against Christ and believers. So sure it is 
that no man can see any glory in that grace of 
Christ that he hath no sight or sense of his own 
need of. Matth.i. 21. Luke xx. 2. Marku. 17. 

Mr. Trail. 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 23 

129. Every believer's experience witnesseth to 
this, that every one that believes on Jesus Christ, 
acts that faith us the chief of sinners : every man 
that seeth himself rightly thinks so of himself, 
and therein thinks not amiss. 1 God only knows 
who is truly the greatest sinner, and every hum- 
bled sinner will think he is the man. Prov. xxx. 2. 

Idem. 

130. There are no saving views of God but in 
Christ, and there are no gracious views God hath 
of men but in Christ. If we look on God out of 
Christ, we are dazzled with an overwhelming con- 
founding Majesty ; if God look on us out of 
Christ, he seeth hateful and hated sinners. Eph ii 
12 '. 13 ' 14 ' Id e m .' 

131. Well may we wonder that the great God 
should stoop so low, to enter into such a covenant 
of grace and peace, founded upon such a Media- 
tor, with such utter enemies, base creatures, sin- 
ful dust and ashes as we are. 1 This is the wonder- 
nrent of angels, a torment of devils, and the glory 
of our nature and persons, and will be matter of 
admiration and praising God to us for all eter- 
nity. P S . ciii. 1,2,3. 1 John iv. 9. Rev. v. 9, 10. 

Dr. Sibs. 

132. The Lord Jesus Christ is such a Saviour 
as became the grace, mercy, love, wisdom, holi- 



24 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

ness, righteousness, justice, and power of God to 
provide ; and, on the other hand^such a Saviour 
as became sinners' needs and desires, and there- 
fore deserves their acceptance, as fit, suitable, 
sufficient to save all that come to God through 
him, and that even to the utmost ; his blood being 
able to cleanse from all sin, his power being able 
to subdue all things to himself, and his Spirit 
sufficient to lead into all truth. ' Ps. lxxxix. 19. 
John xvi. 13. Mr. Halyburton. 

133. O how marvellous a contrivance is there 
where the Blessed Majesty of God finds an argu- 
ment in Himself, when man had none wherewithal 
to plead ! the Son was found in the form of a ser- 
vant, and became our nearest kinsman to redeem 
the inheritance, where his people's standing is 
ensured by another Surety and strength than their 
own ; not on their apprehending, but on their be- 
ing apprehended ; where the Lord does oblige 
himself by bond to make that good which is only 
of grace, and is most freely given ; where he 
both frames the desire within the soul and satisfies 
it. Isa. xlv. 24. Jer. iii. 19. Ezek. xvi. 4,9. 

Mr. Fleming. 

134. The Fountain of mercy is God's love to 
us from eternity, which inclined to us when 
we were hateful ; when he had determined to 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 25 

manifest this love to us, then according to mercy 
he saved us, Grace and mercy, and his giving 
Christ, all is from hence, He so loved the world, 
that He gave his only begotten Son, &c. John iii. 
I6 ' Mr. Bain. 

135. Jesus Christ is so high in dignity that 
no worth can recommend any creature to Him ; 
therefore he takes them that are under his feet, 
poor sinners, upon whom He can tread as upon 
those in hell ; and he can love them heartily and 
familiarly, make them his queen, set them at his 
own right hand. Therefore be not discouraged, 
though you be laid never so low at his feet in a 
sense of your own vileness ; for it is all one to 
Jesus Christ. The truth is, He hath none else to 
marry but those that are under his feet. He must 
have no wife if He have not those that are per- 
fect slaves : yea, if He will have the sons of men, 
He must have enemies, upon whom he might 
tread, and trample under his feet. Deut. vii. & 7 
Ezek. xxxvi. 22, 32. Dr. Goodwin' 

136. All my hope, as to freedom from that 
darkness which is my burden, is from Christ's 
prophetical office, and my hope of freedom from 
the guilt, pollution, and power of sin, and ac- 
ceptation with God, arises from his kingly and 
priestly offices: In one word, I have no° hopes 



26 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

of any mercy, in time or eternity, but onl^ 
through him : it is through him I expect all, from 
the least drop of water to the immense riches of 
glory. Luke xxiv. 45. 1 Cor. viii. 6. Heb. ix. 28. 

Mr. Halyburton. 

137. Free grace is God's darling, which He 
loves to advance : and it is never more advanced 
than when it beautifies the most misshapen souls. 
1 Tim. i. 14, 15. Mr. Chabisock. 

138. Two things may quiet any man's con- 
science under the greatest guilt: 1. Is there not 
a sufficient sacrifice ? is there not satisfaction and 
atonement in the blood of Christ ? is not this a 
sufficient sacrifice? 2. Is it not thine? This I 
know unbelief is apt to stagger at : but therefore 
do but lay thy hand upon the head of the Sacri- 
fice, confess thy sins over the head of thy Burnt- 
offering, lay thy burdens upon Him by faith, and 
He is thine, and all that he hath done and suf- 
fered was for thee, and shall be as effectual for 
thy good, as available and effectual with the 
Lord for thee, as if thou thyself hadst suffered, 
yea, infinitely more. Lev. i. 4. Rom. viii. 1. 
Johnvi. 35,37. x. 27, 28, 29. 

Mr. Sam. Mather. 
139. If Satan lay to my charge; Altho' in 
Christ Jesus thou hast satisfied the punishment 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 27 



which thy sins have deserved, and hast put on 
| his righteousness by faith, yet thou canst not 
deny but thy nature is corrupt, so that thou 
art prone to all evil, and thou hast in thee the 
seeds of all vices : Against this temptation this 
answer is sufficient, That, by the goodness of 
God, not only perfect righteousness, but even the 
holiness of Christ also, is imputed and given un- 
to me, as if I had neither committed any sin, 
neither were there any blot or corruption cleaving 
to me. ICor. i. 30. Songiv.7. Bastingius. 

140. The law presseth on a man till he flies to 
Christ; then it says, Thou hast gotten a refuge, 
I forbear to follow thee : thou art wise • thou art 
safe. GaL iil 13,24. Bengelius. 

141. Question. How art thou righteous before 
Gon? 

Answer. By faith alone in Jesus Christ ; so that 
although my own conscience do accuse me that I 
have grievously offended against all the command- 
ments of God, and have not kept any one of them, 
moreover also that I am prone to all evil, yet not- 
withstanding (so that I embrace these benefits 
with true affiance of mind) without any merit of 
my own, of the mere mercy of God, the perfect 
satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, 



28 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

are imputed and given unto me as if I never had 
committed any sin, neither were there any blot of 
corruption cleaving unto me ; yea, as if I myself 
had perfectly performed that obedience which 
Christ hath performed for me. 1 Cor. i. 30. 
Rom* x. 4. Heidelb. Catechism. 

142. The truth is, the satisfaction of Christ is 
the foundation of pardon ; this satisfaction lies in 
the expiatory sacrifice offered by Christ upon the 
cross: hence expiation or atonement is joined 
with pardon in scripture. Numb. xv. 25. Lev. iv. 
20. The priest was to make atonement that the 
sin might be forgiven. An expiatory sacrifice led 
the way to forgiveness under the law. And so it 
does now under the gospel. Without shedding of 
blood there is no remission of sins : if you have 
not the blood of Christ in your eye when you go to 
God for pardon, never think to speed. Matth.xxvi. 
23. Heb.ix.22. Mr. Tho. Cole. 

143. No comfortable, refreshing thoughts of 
God, no warrantable or acceptable boldness in an 
approach and access unto Him, can any one enter- 
tain or receive, but in the exercise of faith on 
Christ as the Mediator between God and man. 
And if, in the practice of religion, this regard of 
faith unto Him, this acting of faith on God 
through Him, be not the principle whereby the 



EMINENT DIVINES* &C. 29 

whole is animated and guided, Christianity is re- 
nounced, and the vain cloud of natural religion em- 
braced in the room of it. Not a verbal mention 
of Him, but the real intention of heart to come 
unto God through Him, is required of us ; and 
therein all expectation of acceptance with God, 
as unto our persons or duties, is resolved. GaLii, 
20. Eph. ii. 18. Dr. Owen. 

144. The law admits of no pardon, allows of 
none ; it is not at all concerned about that matter, 
but seeks its own satisfaction in a way of strict 
justice ; the law is all for justice : mercy comes 
in by another covenant. It was never in the na- 
ture and constitution of the law to give life to a 
sinner ; the law cannot do that : it can give life to 
a righteous man, but not a sinner ; the law will 
prosecute him to death : it would act contrary to 
itself, to its own declared judgment and eternal 
sanction, if it should do otherwise. Gen. ii. 17. 
Ezek. xviii. 4. Rom, viii. 3. Mr. Tho. Cole. 

1 45. Grace pleaseth a believer so well, that he 
cannot but study to please God in all things ever 
after ; the law of grace constrains him. 2 Cor. v. 
14. Idem. 



146. While we endeavour to prepare our way 



30 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



to Christ by holy qualifications, we do rather fill 
it with stumbling-blocks and deep pits, whereby 
our souls are hindered from ever attaining to the 
salvation of Christ. Christ would have us to be- 
lieve on him that justifies the ungodly, and there- 
fore He doth not require us to be godly before we 
believe : he came as a physician for the sick, and 
doth not expect they should recover their health 
in the least degree before they come to Him. The 
vilest sinners are fitly prepared and qualified for 
this design, which is to shew forth the exceeding 
riches of grace, pardoning our sins and saving us 
freely. Eph, ii. 5, 7. It is no affront to Christ, or 
slighting or contemning the justice and holiness 
of God, to come to God while we are polluted 
sinners : but rather it is an affronting and con- 
temning the saving grace, merit, and fulness of 
Christ, if we endeavour to make ourselves righte- 
ous and holy before we receive Christ himself, 
and all holiness and righteousness in Him by 
faith. Matth. xi. 28. Mr. Marshal. 

147. The suretyship-righteousness of Christ, 
which is through faith upon believers, is his perfect 
conformity to the moral law in all that which the 
justice of God did by virtue thereof demand in 
behalf of the elect from Christ as their surety, that 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 31 



they might, not only in a way of grace, but in a 
way of justice, be brought to that eternal blessed- 
ness and glory whereto God in his infinite love 
had appointed them. Gal.iv. 4. J^om.iii. 26. 

Mr. Nath. Mather. 

148. God's infinite goodness, grace, mercy, 
and love, are infinitely glorified in the gift of 
Christ an infinite saviour ; his infinite justice and 
holiness, in justifying a believer by his infinitely 
meritorious righteousness. A believer is more 
honourably justified by the infinitely meritorious 
righteousness of Christ imputed to him, than an 
angel by his inherent, perfect, personal righteous- 
ness, which is but the obedience of a finite person : 
a believer is more honourably sanctified by that 
grace which is the purchase of Christ's infinite 
merit, and the fruit of his Spirit dwelling in him, 
than an angel by that grace which is the gift only 
of God's creating bounty. Isa. xlii. 21. 

Mr. Glascock. 

149. The righteousness of the law in a strict 
legal sense (for I must be forced to distinguish, I 
know many in this age will not understand me, 
but they that have ears to hear let them hear) I say 
the righteousness of the law in a strict legal 
sense admits of no degrees, it must be perfect or 
none. It is true, a gradual tendency towards the 



32 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



exact righteousness of the law is commendable in 
any ; but, because it is not a fulfilling of the law, 
the law will not reward it, but punish that man as 
a sinner, not because he goes so far in his obe- 
dience,, but because he goes no farther. A man 
may do many things; but, if he doth not always 
do every thing that is right in the law, the law will 
curse that man, and his former righteousness shall 
not be remembered. Ezek. xviii. 24. Deut. xxviL 
26. Gal. Hi. 10, 11. Mr. T. Cole. 

150. True justifying faith puts the soul (as sen- 
sible of its lost condition by the law) upon flying 
for refuge unto Christ's righteousness, (which 
righteousness of his is not an act of grace by which, 
he makes our obedience accepted with God for 
justification, but his personal obedience to the law 
in doing and suffering for us what that required at 
our hands). This righteousness true faith ac- 
cepteth, under the skirt of which the soul being 
shrouded, and by it presented as spotless before 
God, it is accepted, and acquitted from condem- 
nation. Phil. iii. 8, 9. Mr. John Bunyan. 

151. The transcendent graciousness of the gos- 
pel covenant consists not in requiring less righte- 
ousness, to give title to life, than was due at first : 
but in not requiring a perfect righteousness per- 
sonally for that end,, but providing and accepting 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 33 

that of a surety, according to the apostle. Rom.. 
Yin. 3, 4. The law could not give us life, because, 
being weakened by sin, we could not perform the 
perfect righteousness which is required: but what 
the law could not do, Christ has done, giving us a 
title to life, fulfilling the righteousness of the law 
on our behalf. Rom* x. 4. 1 Cor. i. 30. 

Mr. Clarkson. 

152. The redeeming power of the blood of 
Christ is greater than the condemning power of 
sin. This excellency it hath from the dignity of 
his person (for it is the blood of God, Acts xx. 
28.) which makes his obedience and sufferings give 
more glory to God, than our suffering in hell 
would have done. Isa. xlii. 21. Rom. v. 17. 

Mr. Sam. Mather. 

153. Some are all their days laying the foun- 
dation, and are never able to build upon it to any 
comfort to themselves or usefulness to others. 
And the reason 4s, because they will be mixing 
with the foundation, stones that are only fit for the 
following building. They will be bringing their 
obedience, duties, mortification of sin, and the 
like, unto the foundation. These are precious 
stones to build with, but unmeet to be first laid to 
bear upon them the whole weight of the building. 
The foundation is to be laid in mere grace, mercv, 

\2 



34 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

pardon in the blood of Christ; this the soul is to 
accept of and to rest in merely as it is grace, without 
the consideration of any thing in itself, but that it 
is sinful and obnoxious to ruin. This it finds a 
difficulty in, and would gladly have something of 
its own to mix with it : it cannot tell how to fix 
these foundation-stones without some cement of 
its own endeavours and duty : and because these 
things will not mix, they spend a fruitless labour 
about it all their days. But if the foundation be 
of grace, it is not at all of works ; otherwise grace 
is no more grace. If any thing of our own be 
mixed with grace in this matter, it utterly de- 
stroys the nature of grace, which, if it be not alone, 
it is not at alL Rom. xi. 6. Eph. ii. 8, 9. 

Dr. Owen. 

154. To take up mercy, pardon, and forgive- 
ness, absolutely on the account of Christ, and then 
to yield all obedience in the strength of Christ, 
and for the love of Christ, is the life of a believer. 
2 Cor. v. 14, 15. Phil iv. 13. Dr. Owen. 

155. When thy conscience is thoroughly afraid 
with the remembrance of thy sins past, and the 
devil assaileth thee with great violence, going 
about to overwhelm thee with heaps, floods, and 
whole seas of sins, to terrify thee, and draw thee 
from Christ* then arm thyself with such sentences 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 35 

as these : Christ, the Son of God , was^iven, not 
for the holy, righteous, worthy, and such as were 
his friends; but for the wicked sinners, for the 
unworthy, and for his enemies. Wherefore, if 
Satan say, Thou art a sinner, and therefore must 
be damned ; then answer thou, and say, Because 
thou sayest I am a sinner, therefore will I be 
righteous and be saved : and if he reply, Nay, but 
sinners must be damned ; then answer thou, and 
say, No ; for I fly to Christ, who hath given him- 
self for my sins ; and therefore, Satan, in that thou 
sayest I am a sinner, thou givest me armour and 
weapons against thyself, that with thine own 
sword I may cut thy throat, and tread thee under 
my feet. Matth. xi. 28. Rom. v. 6, 8. 

Dr. LUTHER. 

156. We shall be sure to meet with the devil, 
with conscience, with wicked men, and with the 
law of God, in our way to heaven, and we can 
deal with none of them but by that righteousness 
which hath satisfied all : let us bring that along 
with us, and they will all flee before it . If a sin- 
ner comes in his own righteousness, shut him out, 
saith God ; so saith conscience, so saith the law,, 
so saith the devil ; but when one comes clothed 
with the righteousness of Christ, let him in, saith 
God; so saith conscience, so saith the law, and 



36 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



let the devil say a word to the contrary if he dare* 
Rom. v. 1. mil. iii. 9. Gal iii. 10, 11. 

Mr. Tho. Cole. 

157. The grace of God is little beholden to 
that doctrine which would give the glory of it to 
a graceless thing [free-will] ; and as little have the 
souls of men to thank it for : it feeds thern with 
dreams and fancies, which, when they awake, will 
leave them hardly bestead and hungry. There- 
fore sit not down under the shadow of that gourd, 
it hath a worm at the root. And they will not be 
held guiltless, nor keep from the scorching sun, 
whoever they be that shelter themselves in the 
covert of it : it is a spark of men's own kindling, 
wherewith, though compassed round, they will lie 
down in sorrow. IsaA. 11. Gal. i. 15. Rom. 
ix. 16. Mr. Elisha Cole. 

158. Our faith, our repentance, our obedience, 
being sinfully defective, cannot, as such, make any 
thing due to us but punishment, and so cannot 
oblige the Lord to perform the promises to jus- 
tify, pardon, or save us : for that which obliges 
the Lord to execute the threatening cannot oblige 
him to fulfil his promise. How then is the Lord 
obliged; how come the promises to be accom- 
plished? Not upon the account of our defective 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 37 



performances, but for Christ's sake, and so through 
grace. Ezek. xxxvi. 22, 32. Mr. Clarkson* 

159. The commemoration of the covenant of 
works at Sinai was made to convince the Israelites 
of their sin and misery, to drive them out of them- 
selves, to teach them the necessity of satisfaction, 
and to compel them to Christ ; and so is subser- 
vient to the covenant of grace. Rom. iii. 20. 
Gal. iii. 24. Herm. Witsius. 

160. When any person comes practically to 
know how great a thing it is for an apostate sin- 
ner to obtain the remission of sins, and an inherit- 
ance among them that are sanctified, endless 
objections, through the power of unbelief, will 
arise unto his disquietment. Wherefore, that 
which is principally suited to give him rest, peace, 
and satisfaction, and without which nothing else 
can do so, is the due consideration of, and the 
acting faith upon that infinite effect of divine wis- 
dom and goodness in the constitution of the per- 
son of Christ. This, at first view, will reduce the 
mind unto that conclusion, If thou canst believe, 
all things are possible. For what end cannot be 
effected hereby? what end cannot be accomplished 
that was designed in it? Is any thing too hard 
for God ? Did God ever do any thing like this, 



SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



or make use of any such means for any other end 
whatever? Against this no objection can arise. 
On this consideration of Him, faith apprehends 
Christ to be, as indeed he is, the power of God 
and the wisdom of God unto the salvation of 
them that do believe, and therein doth it find rest 
with peace. Mic.vi. 6, 7, 8. vii. 18. Dan.ix. 24, 

Dr. Owen,. 

161. From the intimate conjunction that is be- 
tween Christ and the church, it is just and equal 
in the sight of God, according to the rules of his 
eternal righteousness, that what he did and suf- 
fered in the discharge of his office should be 
esteemed, reckoned, and imputed unto us, as unto 
all the fruits and benefits of it, as if we had done 
and suffered the same things ourselves. IsaAiiu 
5, 6. Idem. 

162. By virtue of his union with the church, 
which of his own accord he entered into, and his 
undertaking therein to answer for it in the sight of 
God, it was a righteous thing with God to lay 
the punishment of all our sins upon Him, so as 
that he might freely and graciously pardon them 
all, to the honour and exaltation of his justice, as 
well as of his grace and mercy. Rom. iii. 24, 25, 
26. Ps. Ixxxv. 10. Dr. Owen. 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 39 

163. God's great design, in the method of sal- 
vation made choice of by infinite Wisdom, was to 
stain the pride of all glory, that no flesh might 
glory in his sight, but that he who glorieth should 
glory only in the Lord. Jer. ix. 24. 1 Cor. i.30. 

Mr. Halyburton. 

164. In his cross were divine holiness and vin- 
dictive justice exercised and manifested, and 
through his triumph grace and mercy are exerted 
to the utmost. This is that glory which ravisheth 
the hearts and satiates the souls of them that be- 
lieve. In due apprehension hereof let my soul 
live, in the faith hereof let me die, and let present 
admiration of this glory make way for the eternal 
enjoyment of it in its beauty and fulness. Heb. x. 
12. Col i. 20. Jp.iii.ia. Rom. xi. 33. 

Dr. Owen. 

165. It is a vain and a foolish thing to seek for 
the justification of a sinner without satisfaction to 
the justice of God, which he can never give but 
by the righteousness of Christ imputed to him, 
While justice remains unsatisfied, it will over- 
throw all other grounds of hope for justification, 
which we may take up from our own works and 
doings. The justice of God strikes an unjustified 



40 



SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



sinner under the curse, and so leaves him in a 
condemned state. John iii. 18. 

Mr. Tho. Cole. 

166. If any thing ought to be accounted wor- 
thy of the most attentive consideration, it is indeed 
the covenant of grace. Here a way is shewn unto 
a better paradise than the earthly, and to a more 
certain and more stable happiness than that from 
which Adam fell. Here new hopes shine upon 
ruined mortals, which by so much ought the more 
to be acceptable, by how much it came more un- 
expected. Here conditions are offered, to which 
eternal life is annexed ; conditions not again by us 
to be performed, which would cause the mind to 
despond ; but by Him who departed not this life, 
before He had truly said, It is finished. Rom. 
x. 4. Mr. Herman WitsiDs. 

167. Justifying faith consisteth in the heart's 
approbation of the way of justification and salva- 
tion of sinners by Jesus Christ proposed in the 
gospel, as proceeding from the grace, wisdom, and 
love of God, with its acquiescence therein, as to 
its own concernment and condition. John xi. 25, 
26, 27. Dr. Owen. 

168. God never made the covenant of works 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 41 

with any man since the fall, either with expecta- 
tion that he should fulfil it, or to give him life by 
it ; for God never appoints any thing to an end to 
which it is utterly unsuitable and improper. Now 
the law, as it is a covenant of works, is become 
weak and unprofitable to the purpose of salvation, 
and therefore God never appointed it to man, since 
the fall, to that end. And besides, it is manifest 
that the purpose of God, in the covenant made with 
Abraham, was to give life and salvation by grace 
and promise ; and therefore his purpose, in renew- 
ing the covenant of works, was not, neither could 
be, to give life and salvation by working, for then 
there would have been contradictions in the cove- 
nants, and instability in Him that made them* 
Rom. viii. 3. Gal. ii. 21. iii. 17, 18, 19. 

Mark. Mod. Divin. 

169. It is certain in experience, that, with a 
poor and slender, It may be, at the first, many a 
soul hath cast anchor within the veil, blindfold, 
and yet in the end have found a firm and sure 
holdfast in the heart of God and the grace of 
Christ to hang upon with the whole weiglit of 
their soul, the weight of their sins hanging upon 
them also with all their pondus. Luke xxiii. 42. 
Matth. viii. 2. Zeph. ii. 3. 

Dr. Goodwin, 



42 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

170. Our faith, or act of believing, cannot be 
the matter of justification, for that it is an imper- 
fect thing, and so cannot be reckoned in the place 
of perfect righteousness : for it must be a righte- 
ousness perfectly perfect that justifies ; as it was 
a sin perfectly sinful that condemned. This 
righteousness also must be our own in a way of 
right, (as Adam's sin also was) though performed 
in the person of another : Christ and Adam being 
parallels in their headship, the imputation of one's 
guiltiness and the other's righteousness are righte- 
ously applied to their respective seeds. And this 
was a main end of God's putting those he would 
justify, into Christ : that He being made sin and a 
curse for them, they might be made the righteous- 
ness of God in him ; and so God might be just in 
justifying them. Rom. iii. 24, 25, 36. 

Mr. Elisha Cole. 

171. Though we and our best works are vile, 
yet the Lord, looking upon the forehead of our 
High-priest, sees holiness engraven there ; look- 
ing upon the face of Christ, He there also beholds 
it for us, and becomes well-pleased with us ; and 
we, in the faith thereof, may be persuaded and 
assured of our acceptance with the Lord through 
the faith of Him. Thou that sayest there is no- 
thing but sin in me, sin and vileness in all I do ; 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 43 



I answer, It is true, the Lord can see nothing but 
sin in thee ; but he cannot look upon the High- 
priest but there he sees holiness ; yea, the holi- 
ness of Jehovah there. Exod. xxviii. 38. 

Mr. S. Mather. 

172. Let us see what matter of support and en- 
couragement faith may fetch from Christ's death 
for justification; and surely that which hath long 
ago satisfied God himself for the sins of many 
thousands now in heaven, may very well serve to 
satisfy the heart and conscience of any sinner now 
upon earth in any doubts, in respect of the guilt 
of sin that can arise. The apostle, after that large 
discourse ofjustificationby Christ's righteousness, 
in the former part of the epistle to the Romans, 
and having shewed how every way it abounds, 
chap. v. in chap. viii. sits down, as it were, like a 
man over-convinced, as ver. 31. " What then 
shall we say to these things ? " He speaks as one 
satisfied, and even astonished, with abundance of 
evidence : having nothing to say 3 but only to ad- 
mire God and Christ in this work; and therefore 
presently throws down the gauntlet, and chal- 
lengeth a dispute with all comers : let conscience, 
carnal reason, law, sin, hell, and devils, bring all 
their strength. " Who is he that shall lay any 
thing to the charge of God's elect? who shall con- 



44 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



demn?" Paul dares to answer them all, and 
carry it with these few words, " It is God that 
justifies ; it is Christ that died ; and, as in verse 
37. In all these things we are more than con- 
querors." And so likewise the author of Psalm 
130, when his soul was in deep distress by reason 
of his sins, ver. 12, yet this was it that set his 
soul to wait upon God, That there was plenteous 
redemption with Him. Christ's redemption is not 
merely a price or ransom equivalent, or making a 
due satisfaction, according to the just demerit of 
sin ; but is plenteous redemption ; there is abund- 
ance of the gift of righteousness, and unsearch- 
able riches of Christ : yea, 1 Tim. i. 14. The 
grace of our Lord (that is of Christ) was [we trans- 
late it] abundant; but the word reacheth farther, 
it was over full, redundant, more than enough : 
and yet, says Paul, I had sins enough to pardon, 
one would think to exhaust it, I was a blasphemer, 
&c. but I found so much grace in Christ, even \ 
more than I knew what to do withal. 1 Tim. i. 
13, 14, 15. Dr. Goodwin. 

173. Is Christ God's beloved, with and in whom 
he is well pleased? And is he not thy beloved? 
What is the matter? Is thy narrow soul more 
curious about an object of its love than God him- 
self is ? O let him be to each of us our beloved I 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 45 

If He be God's beloved, He may as well be thine. 
Is He able to satisfy God's vast thoughts, and is 
He not able to satisfy thee, poor creature? God 
himself is satisfied and at rest in Him. Says 
Christ, Prov. viii. 30. I was daily his delight. 
And wouldst thou be happier than God is? Is 
he God's beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased? 
and wilt thou be pleased in any thing but Christ? 
Ps. Ixxiii. 25. Phil. iii. 8. Dr. Goodwin. 

174. There is a far greater power in the blood 
of Christ to save and cleanse, than in sin to defile 
and destroy, Rom. viii. 3. The law became weak 
to do good, but it hath power to condemn. The 
strength of sin is the law ; the law gives strength 
to sin, because, by virtue of the curse of the law, 
sin reigns and defiles the souls of men, through 
that righteous curse. ' The soul that sins shall 
die.' But the blood of Jesus Christ hath greater 
power to save, than sin (together with the law) 
hath to condemn. For the blood of Christ takes 
away and abolisheth it utterly : where this blood 
is applied and brought home, sin itself cannot ruin 
that soul. The soul is poisoned and corrupted 
by sin; but the blood of Christ takes away that 
poison, and makes the soul pure and holy, as if it 
had never sinned. Therefore, as to those dis- 
couragements, ' I shall never get power against 



46 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



these corruptions, They will be my ruin;' these 
are deep reflections on Jesus Christ, as if sin were 
stronger than He ; as if thy sin were more power- 
ful to damn thee than Christ is to save thee. John 
L29. Uohni.7. iii.5. Mr. Sam. Mather. 

175. An approbation of God's way of saving 
sinners by Jesus Christ, to the praise of the glory 
of his grace, I take to be the true scriptural notion 
of justifying faith. And it really gives Him that 
glory which he designed by all this contrivance, 
the glory of his wisdom, grace, mercy, and truth. 
Rom. iii. 24, 26. Mr. Halybukton, 

176. Whensoever thou hast to do in the matter 
of justification, and disputest with thyself, how 
God is to be found, that justifieth and accepteth 
sinners, where and in what sort He is to be sought, 
then know thou that there is no other God but the 
man Christ Jesus. Embrace Him and cleave to 
Him with thy whole heart, setting aside all curi- 
ous speculations of the Divine Majesty. For he 
that is a searcher of God's majesty shall be over- 
whelmed of his glory. I know by experience 
what I say. Christ himself saith, Joh. xiv. 6. 
" I am the way, the truth, and the life ; no man 
cometh to the Father but by me." Therefore, 
besides this way Christ, thou shalt find no other 
way to the Father, but wandering; no truth, but 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 47 



hypocrisy ; no life, but eternal death. Where- 
fore, mark this well in the matter of justification, 
that, when any of us shall have to wrestle with 
the law, sin, death, and all other evils, we must 
look upon no other God but only this God incar- 
nate, and clothed with man's nature. Eph. ii. 18. 
Col. i. 15, 20. Dr. Luther. 

177. How should faith triumph in this? Is 
not our High-priest in the sanctuary ? Is He not 
clothed with garments of salvation and righteous- 
ness ? And doth he not bear the names of his 
people upon his shoulders and upon his breast 
before the Lord ? Thy particular concernments 
(tf thou art a believer) are written upon his heart, 
with the pen of a diamond, in such lasting letters 
of loving-kindness as shall never be blotted out. 
Isa. xlix. 16. Mr. Sam. Mather. 

178. It is not the righteous and godly man but 
the sinful and ungodly man, that Christ came to 
call, justify, and save, So that if you were a 
righteous and godly man, you were neither capa- 
ble of calling, justifying, or saving by Christ ; but 
being a sinful and ungodly man, I will be bold to 
say unto you, as the people said unto blind Barti- 
meus, ' Be of good comfort, Arise, He calleth 
thee/ and will justify and save thee. Go then 



48 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

unto Him, I beseech you ; and if He come and 
meet you (as his manner is) then do not unad- 
visedly say, with Peter, Depart from me, O Lord ! 
for I am a sinful man ; but say, in plain terms, 
O come unto me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord ! 
yea, go farther, and say, as Luther bids you, 
Most gracious Jesus, and sweet Christ, I am a 
poor miserable sinner, and therefore do judge 
myself unworthy of thy grace; but yet, having 
learned from thy word, that thy salvation be- 
longeth to such an one, therefore do I come unto 
thee, to claim that right which, through thy gra- 
cious promise, belongeth unto me. Assure your- 
self, man, that Jesus Christ requires no portion 
with his spouse ; No, verily; He requires nothing 
with her but mere poverty ; the rich he sends 
empty away, but the poor are by Him enriched. 
And indeed, said Luther, the more miserable, sin- 
ful, and distressed, a man doth feel himself, and 
judge himself to be, the more willing is Christ to 
receive him and relieve him. So that, saith he, 
in judging thyself unworthy, thou art thereby be- 
come truly worthy ; and so indeed thou hast 
gotten a greater occasion of coming unto Him. 
Wherefore then, in the words of the apostle, I 
do exhort and beseech you, to come boldly to the 
throne of grace, that you may obtain mercy, and 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 49 

find grace to help in time of need. Heb. iv. 16. 
Matth. ix. 13. Luke i. 53. 

Mare. Mod. Divin. 

179. Let thy soul be set on the highest mount 
that any creature was ever yet set upon, and en- 
larged, to take in view the most spacious prospect 
both of sin and misery, and difficulties of being 
saved, that ever yet any poor humble soul did 
ever cast within itself; yea, join to these all the 
hindrances and objections that the heart of man 
can invent against itself and salvation ; lift up thy 
eyes and look to the utmost thou canst see, and 
Christ, by his intercession, is able to save thee 
beyond the horizon and utmost compass of thy 
thoughts, even to the utmost. Heb. vii. 25. 
1 John i. 7. tv, n „ 

DY. CjOODWIN. 

180. Justification through the blood of Christ 
is ever accompanied with sanctification by his 
Spirit; therefore, if the Spirit of God be work- 
ing and burning in thy heart, fear not, thou art 
washed in the crystal sea which is before the 
throne : if sanctified by the Spirit of Christ, thou 
art justified by his blood. 1 Cor. i. 30. 

Mr. Sam. Mather. 

181 There is no finding out to perfection the 
breadth and length, the depth and height, of 



50 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

God's grace. The love of God, which is in Christ 
Jesus our Lord, passeth all understanding. His 
grace, and his gifts by grace, unto believers are 
ineffable, infinitely free, without any merit in us, 
or any motive ; astonishingly rich, while we were 
enemies, most denied and deformed ones, and 
equally without power to resist damning justice, 
and without the prudence to ask saving mercy. 
Rom.v. 10. Ephes.iiu 18, 19. CoL\. 21. Angels, 
our elders and betters, were not pitied, but irre- 
versibly doomed to destruction. More than angels 
and all the creation was worth, was given to re- 
deem us, even as much more than they were 
worth, as God, by essence, exceeds the mere 
creature. Christ is God by eternal essence, and 
yet God spared not his Son, but gave Him up to 
redeem rebels : whereat hell envies, and heaven 
wonders. A vast tribute of praise must hence 
rise due, so due, that, if believers be silent, the 
stones must needs cry out. Believers who are no 
longer mutes, have the dumb devil expelled, and 
their mouths opened for praise, their tongues 
touched with a coal from the holy altar, and 
qualified to lift up the name of their Redeemer. 
Luke xix. 40. 2 Pet. ii. 4, 5. Rev. v. 9, 10. 

Mr. Dan. Burgess. 



182. The grand design of all false religions, is 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 51 

to patch up a self-righteousness for the justifica- 
tion of a sinner before God. The Christian 
religion teacheth us to seek justification before 
God, by the imputation of Christ's righteousness 
to us, upon our believing on Him ; which righte- 
ousness purchaseth for us, not only pardon of 
sin, but also grace and glory. Gal.il 21. v. 4. 
Rom. ix. 31, 32. The true and proper imputation 
of Christ's righteousness, is the act of God, as a 
judge, accepting the righteousness of Christ for a 
believer, as such a righteousness as that law which 
is the rule of judgement requires, for the justifica- 
tion of a sinner. The denial of a believer's justi- 
fication, by such an imputation of Christ's righte- 
ousness to him, stabs the very heart of Christi- 
anity, and destroys all true revealed religion. 
Rom. iv. 24. Gal i. 6, 7, 8. Mr. Glascock. 

183. God hath called us by his grace to his 
kingdom of glory: if we do not go by the door 
of grace, we shall not find the door of the king- 
dom of glory. Believers have not one thought 
of glory but what grace suggests to them: it 
never entered into their minds to conceive such a 
thing. Free grace openeth the door, and they 
see such things as eye never saw, and hear such 
things as ear never heard, nor did enter into the 
heart of man. Rom.ix. 15, 16. Mr. Tho. Cole 



52 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



184. God was a God to Adam before he fell ; 
but to be a God to sinners, this is grace. He 
was a God to Adam in innocency by virtue of 
the covenant of works ; but he is not a God to 
any sinner but in a way of free grace. Now that 
was the covenant, I will be a God to thee and thy 
seed. Gen. xvii. 7. Abraham was a sinner and 
a child of wrath by nature, as well as others ; 
yet God was his God truly. For God to be a 
God to them that never sinned, there may be 
merit ; but for God to be a God to those that 
have sinned, this is grace indeed ! Angels are 
saved by works, sinners cannot be saved but by 
grace. That ever the Lord should condescend to 
engage in such a relation, as to give a sinner 
interest in Him and propriety in Him as his God, 
this is grace. They that do not think this is 
grace, they need not argument, but pity and 
prayer. Eph.i. 6. ii.5, 8. Mr. Sam. Mather. 

185. The first part of the covenant is this, that 
God would be a God to him and his seed; and this 
indeed is most comprehensive, and includes all the 
rest : I will establish my covenant, and be a God 
to thee and thy children after thee. And what is 
it for God to be a God to a man, thy God, or a 
God to thee? It is when he gives to a poor 
creature a special interest and propriety in Him- 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 53 

self ; so that God, in his all-sufficiency and effi- 
ciency, is ours, and we are his. All his attributes 
and works are ours, for our good. I will be thy 
God ; that is, all my attributes shall be thine, for 
thy good, as really as they are mine, for my glory. 
The infinite wisdom of God shall contrive their 
good, whose God He is; the infinite power of 
God shall effect it : the infinite love of God is 
theirs; his mercy, truth, and all his attributes, 
are theirs : as his essential power, so his working, 
or his actual power : as He will be all to them, 
so he will work all for them. Ps. lxxxvii. 7. 
Ixxxix. 28, 29. ciii. 17. Isa. xxxiii. 22. xlix. 16. 

Mr. Sam. Mather. 

186. The Lord will be a sun and a shield, 
Ps. lxxxiv. 11. He will be a shield to keep off 
all evil, and a sun to fill them with all comfort. I 
am (saith He) thy exceeding great reward. As if 
He should say, Abraham, Whatsoever is in me, 
all that I have, all my attributes, are thine, for 
thy use ; my power, my wisdom, my counsel, my 
goodness, my riches, whatsoever is mine in the 
whole world, I will give it for thy portion : I 
and all that I have are thine. And might not He 
well say, He was an exceeding great reward? 
Who can understand the height and depth, and 
breadth and length, of this reward ? that is, Thou 



54 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



shalt have all kind of comfort in me, and thou 
shalt have them in the greatest measure. 1 Sam. 
xii.22. 2 Sam. vii. 24. Isa.xli. 10. lxii. 5. 

Dr. Preston. 

187. Let no man look for sanctification before 
he is justified, that is, let no man be discouraged 
from coming to Christ, because he finds not in 
himself that godly sorrow for sin, that ability to 
repent, that disposition of heart, which he desires 
to have. We must first be in Christ before we 
are new creatures. And this is a common fault 
among us ; we would fain have something before 
we come : we think God's pardons are not free, 
but we must bring something in our hand. You 
know the proclamation runs thus, buy without 
money, that is, come without any excellency at 
all ; because we are commanded to come and take 
the water of life freely. Therefore do not say, I 
have a sinful disposition and an hard heart, and 
cannot mourn for sin as I should ; therefore I will 
stay till that be done. It is all one as if thou 
should say, I must go to the physician ; but I 
will have my wounds well, and my disease healed 
first, and, when that is done, I will go to the 
physician. What is the end of thy going to him, 
but to have thy disease healed ? I say, It is the 
same folly. The end of going to Christ is, that 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 55 

this very hardness of thy heart may be taken 
away, that this very deadness of thy spirit may 
be removed ; that thou mayest be enlivened, 
quickened, healed ; that thou mayest hate sin : 
for he is thy physician : look not for it before- 
hand : thou must first be in Christ before thou 
canst be a new creature. Johny'n. 37. Matth. xi. 
28. isa.lv. 1. Dr. Preston. 

188. Sinners can do nothing but make wounds 
that Christ may heal them, and make debts that 
He may pay them, and make falls that He may 
raise them, and make deaths that He may quicken 
them, and spin out and dig hells for themselves 
that He may ransom them. Now will I bless the 
Lord that ever there was such a thing as the 
free-grace of God, and a free ransom given for 
sold souls : only, alas ! guiltiness maketh me 
ashamed to apply Christ, and to think it pride in 
me to put out my unclean and withered hand to 
such a saviour! But it is neither shame nor 
pride for a drowning man to swim to a rock, nor 
for a ship-broken soul to run himself ashore upon 
Christ. Horn. vii. 14 to 23. Rev. xxii. 17. 

Mr. RUTHERFOORD. 

189. Consider what a comprehensive blessing 
salvation is, and take an estimate thereof, by com- 



56 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

paring it with the temporal deliverances of the 
Israelites. Those proceeded from a common, 
ordinary love ; these from a peculiar distinguish- 
ing affection : their deliverances were effected not 
without hazard of their persons ; our salvation is 
effected only by the blood of Christ : the issue 
of theirs was not much more than civil tranquil- 
lity, sitting under their vines and fig-trees ; the 
issue of ours is grace, glory, joy, and those things 
which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor 
have entered into the heart of man to conceive. 
Isa. lxiv. 4. Mr. Clarkson. 

190. For God to be a God to any one, includes 
eternal life : for when God becomes a God to a 
sinner, then He becomes that to him which He is 
to Himself. And what is God to Himself? With- 
out doubt the fountain of eternal and consummate 
blessedness. God, when he gives himself in grace 
to a man, gives him all things ; for He is all 
things. That man finds in God a shield against 
every evil, and an exceeding great reward. And 
what can he desire more to perfect happiness? 
From whence it is that the apostle joins these 
two, for God to be a God to any one, and to 
prepare for him a city. Heb. xi. 16. 

Mr. Herm. Witsius. 

191. God saith to the soul, I am thy salvation ; 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C, 57 

and the soul saith again, Thou art my God. Faith 
is nothing else but a spiritual echo, returning that 
voice back again which God first speaks to the 
soul : for what acquaintance could the soul claim 
with so glorious a Majesty, if He should not first 
condescend so low as to speak peace, and whisper 
secretly to the soul, that he is our loving God and 
Father, and we his peculiar ones in Christ ; that 
our sins are all pardoned, his justice fully satisfied, 
and our persons freely accepted in his dear Son? 
Gen. xv. 1. Jer. iii. 19. Isa. lxiii. 16. Lam. Hi. 24. 

Dr. Sibs. 

192. Love, by nature, when it seeth, cannot 
but cast out its spirit and strength upon amiable 
objects, and things love-worthy. And what fairer 
things than Christ ! O fair sun, and fair moon, 
and fair stars, and fair flowers, and fair roses, 
and fair lilies, and fair creatures ! but O ten thou 
sand thousand times fairer Lord Jesus ! Alas ! 
I wronged Him in making comparison this way. 
O black sun and moon, but O fair Lord Jesus ! 
O black flowers, and black lilies, and black roses ; 
but O fair, fair, for ever fair Lord Jesus ! O all 
fair things, black, deformed, and without beauty, 
when ye are set beside the fairest Lord Jesus ! O 
black heavens, but O fair Christ ! O black angels, 
d 2 



OS SElECT SENTENCES FROM 

but O surpassingly fair Lord Jesus ! Cant. v. 10 
to 16. Ps. xlv. 2. Mr. Rutherfoord. 

193. That love is not sincere which proceedeth 
not from, which is not a fruit of faith : those who 
do not first really believe on Christ can never 
sincerely love Him : it is faith alone that worketh 
by love towards Christ and all his saints. If 
therefore any do not believe with that faith which 
unites them to Christ, which within purifies the 
heart, and is outwardly effectual in duties of obe- 
dience, whatever they may persuade themselves 
concerning love unto Christ, it is but a vain de- 
lusion. Where the faith of men is dead, their 
love will not be living and sincere. John xiv. 15. 
Pet. i. 8. Dr. Owen. 

194. Shall we tell men that, unless they be 
holy, they must not believe on Jesus Christ, that 
they must not venture on Christ for salvation 
till they be qualified, and fit to be received- and 
welcomed by Him ? This were to forbear preach- 
ing the gospel at all, or to forbid all men to be- 
lieve on Christ. For never was any man qualified 
for Christ. He is well qualified for us. 1 Cor. i. 30. 
But a sinner out of Christ hath no qualifications 
for Christ, but sin and misery. Whence should 
he have any better but from and in Christ ? Nay, 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 59 

suppose an impossibility, that a man were quali- 
fied for Christ, I boldiy assert that such a man 
would not, nor ever could believe on Christ. For 
faith is a lost, helpless, condemned sinner's cast- 
ing himself on Christ for salvation ; and the quali- 
fied man is no such person. Matth.ix. 13. 1 TimA. 
15. Shall we warn people that they should not 
believe on Christ too soon ? It is impossible they 
should do it too soon. Can a man obey the great 
gospel command too soon ? 1 John iii. 13. Or do 
the great work of God too soon? John vi. 29. A 
man may too soon think he is in Christ, and that 
is, when he is not so indeed. And this we fre- 
quently teach. But that is only an idle dream, 
not faith. A man may too soon fancy that he 
hath faith : but, I hope, he cannot act faith too 
soon. If any should say a man may be holy too 
soon, how would that saying be reflected on? 
And yet it is certain, that though no man can be 
holy too soon (because he cannot too soon be- 
lieve on Christ, which is the only spring of true 
holiness) yet he may, and many do, set about the 
study of that he counts holiness too soon, that is, 
before the tree be changed, 31atth. xii. 33, 34. 
before he have the new heart, Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27. 
and the Spirit of God dwelling in him, which is 
only got by faith in Christ, Gal. iii. 14. And 
therefore all this man's studying of holiness is not 



60 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

only vain labour, but acting of sin. And if this 
study and these endeavours be managed, as com- 
monly they are, to obtain justification before God, 
they are the more wicked works still. Rom. xiv. 
23. Gal. v. 4. Mr. Trail. 

195. The gospel's glory is, that it is the minis- 
tration of the Spirit. The great privilege of 
believers is, that the Lord manifests Himself to 
them as He doth not to the world : when He mani- 
fests his authority in the command, it is then 
powerful; whenHe manifests his goodness and truth 
in the promise, it is full of sweetness ; when He 
manifests his wrath in the threatening, it awes the 
soul ; when he manifests his glory in the face 
of Christ, it is ravishing, reforming, attracting. 
John i. 14. xiv. 21, 23. xvii. 0. 

Mr. Halyburton. 

196. Love works by admiration. That is the 
voice of Love. Zech. ix. 17. How great is his 
beauty ! How great is his goodness ! The soul, 
being as it were ravished with that view which it 
hath of the glorious excellencies of God in Christ, 
hath no way to express its affections but by ad- 
miration. How great is his goodness ! How great 
is his beauty ! And this beauty of God is that 
sweetness and holy symmetry of glory in all the 
perfections of God, being all in a sweet corre- 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 61 

spondency exalted in Christ, who is the proper 
object of our love. To see infinite holiness, pu- 
rity, and righteousness, with infinite love, good- 
ness, grace, and mercy, all equally glorified in and 
towards the same things and persons, one glimpse 
whereof is not to be attained in the world out of 
Christ, is that beauty of God which attracts the 
love of a believing soul, and fills it with an holy 
admiration of him. Ps. lxxxv. 10. Luke i. 46, 
68, 78. John i. 14. Dr. Owen. 

197. The revelation made of Christ in the blesed 
gospel is far more glorious, more excellent, and 
more filled with rays of divine wisdom, and good- 
ness, than the whole creation, and the just com- 
prehension of it attainable, can contain or afford. 
Without the knowledge hereof, the mind of man, 
however priding itself in other inventions and 
discoveries, is wrapped up in darkness and con- 
fusion. John xvii. 3. Idem. 

198. The humbling our souls before the Lord 
Christ from an apprehension of his divine excel- 
lencies, the ascription of glory, honour, and praise, 
with thanksgiving, unto Him on the great motive 
of the work of redemption, with the blessed effects 
thereof, are things wherein the life of faith is con- 
tinually exercised ; nor can we have any evidence 
of an interest in that blessedness which consists 



62 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

in the eternal assignation of all glory and praise 
unto Him in heaven, if we are not exercised unto 
this worship of Him here on earth, Isa. vi. 3. 
Rev. v. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. They who desire not to 
behold the glory of Christ in this world, shall 
never behold Him in glory hereafter unto their sa- 
tisfaction ; nor do they desire so to do : only they 
suppose it a part of that relief which they would 
have when they are gone out of this world. For 
what should beget such a desire in them ? Nothing 
can do it but some view of it here by faith, which 
they despise or totally neglect. Every pretence 
of a desire of heaven, and of the presence of Christ 
therein, that doth not arise from, that is not re- 
solved into, that prospect which we have of the 
glory of Christ in this world by faith, is mere fancy 
and imagination. 2 Cor. iii. 18. iv. 18. 

Dr. Owen. 

199. Whatever men may pretend, no man can 
be truly and rightly studious of the advancement 
of the kingdom of God in the world, that hath 
not first felt the mighty power and blessed effects 
of it in his own soul. 2 Tim. i. 12. 

Mr. Shaw. 

200. To suppose that the Lord Jesus Christ, as 
the king and head of the church, hath not an in- 
finite divine power, whereby He is able always to 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 



63 



relieve, succour, save, and deliver it, if it were to 
be done by the alteration of the whole or any part 
of God's creation, so as that the fire should not 
burn nor the water overwhelm them, nor men be 
able to retain their thoughts or ability one moment 
to afflict them ; and that their distresses are not 
always the effects of his wisdom, and never from 
the defect of his power ; is utterly to overthrow all 
faith, hope, and the whole of religion itself, Gen. 
xxxi.29. xxxiii. 1.4. Dan. iii. 27. There are no 
true believers who will part with their faith herein 
for the whole world; namely, that the Lord Jesus 
Christ is able, by his divine power and presence, 
immediately to aid, assist, relieve, and deliver 
them in every moment of their surprisals, fears, 
and dangers, in every trial or duty they may be 
called unto, in every difficulty they have to con- 
flict withal. And to expect these things any 
otherwise than by virtue of his divine nature, is 
wofully to deceive our own souls. For this is the 
work of God. Heb. vii. 25. Rev. i. 18. ii. 26, 
27. Dr. Owen. 

201. I am sure my Well-beloved is God. And 
when I say Christ is God, and my Christ is God, 
I have said all things, I can say no more. I would 
I could build as much on this, My Christ is God, 



64 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



as it would bear, I might lay all the world upon 
it. John x. 28. John i. 49. Col. i. 16, 17. 

Mr. RUTHERFOORD. 

202. They who reject the divine person of 
Christ, who believe it not, who discern not the 
wisdom, grace, love, and power of God therein, 
do constantly reject or corrupt all other spiritual 
truths of divine revelation. Nor can it otherwise 
t>e : for they have a consistency only in their re- 
lation unto the mystery of godliness, God mani- 
fest in the flesh, and from thence derive their 
sense and meaning. This being removed, the 
truth in all other articles of religion immediately 
falls to the ground. 1 Tim. iii. 16. 1 Johniv. 2, 
3. Eph. ii. 20, 21 . Col. ii. 7. Rev. i. 18. 

Dr. Owen. 

203. By Him were all things created that are in 
heaven and in earth, visible and invisible, Col. i. 
16, 17. And because of the great notions and ap- 
prehensions that were then in the world, especial- 
ly among the Jews, (unto whom the apostle had 
respect in this epistle) of the greatness and glory 
of the invisible part of the creation in heaven 
above, he mentions them in particular under the 
most glorious titles that any other could or then 
did ascribe unto them : whether they be thrones, 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 65 

or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all 
things were created by Him and for Him : the 
same expression that is used of God absolutely, 
Rom. xi. 36. Rev. iv. 11. John\. 1, 2, 3. Heb. 
i. 1, 2, 3. And those that are not under the effi- 
cacy of spiritual infatuation, cannot but admire at 
the power of unbelief, the blindness of the minds 
of men, and the craft of Satan in them who deny 
the divine nature of Jesus Christ. 2 Cor. iv. 4. 

Idem. 

204. Let it please the Lord to take me out of 
this life this hour, or whensoever he pleaseth, 
I leave this behind me, that I do and will acknow- 
ledge Jesus Christ for my Lord and my God. I 
have not this out of the scripture only, but also 
by great and manifold experience ; for the name 
Jesus hath oftentimes helped me, when no crea- 
ture could help or comfort me. Prov. xviii. 10. 
Song i. ,3. He that hath Christ for his king and 
God, let him be assured he hath the devil for his 
enemy, who will work him much sorrow, and will 
plague him all the days of his life. But let this 
be our comfort and great glory, that we poor peo- 
ple have the Lord of life and of death, and of all 
creatures, clothed with our flesh and blood, sitting 
at the right hand of God his Father, who ever 



66 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



liveth and maketh intercession for us, defendeth 
and protecteth us. Acts iii. 15. Heb. ix. 24. 

Dr. Luther. 

205. Let the world rage while it pleaseth, let it 
set itself with all its power and craft against every- 
thing of Christ that is in it, which, whatever is pre- 
tended, proceeds from an hatred to his person ; 
let men make themselves drunk with the blood of 
his saints : we have this to oppose unto all their 
attempts, unto our supportment, namely, what He 
says of Himself : Fear not, I am the first and the 
last, He that liveth and was dead, and behold I am 
alive for evermore, and have the keys of hell and 
death. Rev. i. 16, 18. Dr. Owen. 

206. It is the person of Christ which is the first 
and principal object of that faith wherewith we 
are required to believe in Him ; and so to do is not 
only to assent unto the truth of the doctrine re- 
vealed by Him, but also to place our trust and 
confidence in Him for mercy, relief, and protec- 
tion, for righteousness, life, and salvation, for a 
blessed resurrection and eternal reward. John 
xiv. 1. vi. 54. 1 Johnv. 10, 11. Idem. 



207. To fancy that all the love of Christ unto 
us consists in the precepts and promises of the 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 



67 



gospel, and all our love unto Him in the observ- 
ance of his commands, without a real love in Him 
unto our persons, like that of an husband to his 
wife, and an holy affection in our hearts and minds 
unto his person, is to overthrow the whole power 
of religion, to despoil it of its life and soul, leav- 
ing nothing but the carcass of it. Gal. ii. 20. 
John xvii. 21; Eph. v. 25, 26, 27. 1 Cor. xvi. 22. 

Dr. Owen. 

208. Blessed Jesus ! we can add nothing to 
thee, nothing to thy glory ; but it is a joy of heart 
unto us that thou art what thou art, that thou art 
so gloriously exalted at the right hand of God ; 
and we do long more fully and clearly to behold 
that glory, according to thy prayer and promise. 
John xvii. 24. Idem. 

209. Then do we find food for our souls in the 
word of truth, then do we taste how gracious the 
Lord is therein; then is the scripture full of re- 
freshment to us, as a spring of living water, when 
we are taken into a blessed view of the glory of 
Christ therein. This is the glory of the scripture, 
that it is the great, the only outward means of re- 
presenting unto us the glory of Christ : and He is 
the Sun in the firmament thereof, which only hath 
life in itself, and communicates it to all other 



88 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



things besides. Johni. 9. v. 39. Col. i. 15, 16, 
17, 18, 19. Dr. Owen. 

210. God was in Christ reconciling the world 
unto Himself, not imputing their sins unto them, 
2 Cor. v. 19, q. d. Because* as God stands in re- 
lation to man according to the tenor of the cove- 
nant of works, and so out of Christ, lie could not, 
without prejudice' to his justice, be reconciled 
unto them, nor have any thing to do with them 
otherwise than in wrath and indignation ; there- 
fore, to the intent that justice and mercy might 
meet together, and righteousness and peace might 
embrace each other, and so God stand in relation 
to man according to the tenor of the covenant of 
grace, He put Himself into his Son Jesus Christ, 
and shrouded Himself there, that so He might 
speak peace to his people. Sweetly saith Luther, 
Because the nature of God was otherwise higher 
than we are able to attain unto, thereof hath he 
humbled Himself unto us and taken our nature 
upon Him, and so put Himself into Christ : here 
He looketh for us, here He will receive us ; and 
he that seeketh Him here shall find Him. This, 
saith God the Father, is my well-beloved Son, in 
whom I am well pleased, Matth. iii. 17. We must 
not think that this voice came from heaven for 
Christ's own sake, but for our sakes, even as Christ 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 



69 



himself saith, John xii. 30. The truth is, Christ 
had no need that it should be said unto Him, This 
is my well-beloved Son ; He knew that from all 
eternity, and that He should still so remain, though 
these words had not been spoken from heaven ; 
therefore, by these words God the Father, in 
Christ his Son, cheareth the hearts of poor sinners, 
and greatly delighteth them with singular comfort 
and heavenly sweetness, assuring them, that who- 
soever is married unto Christ, and so in Him by 
faith, he is as acceptable to God the Father as 
Christ himself, Eph. i. 6. He hath made us ac- 
cepted in the Beloved. Wherefore, if you would 
be acceptable to God, and be his dear child, then 
by faith cleave unto his beloved Son Christ, and 
hang about his neck, yea, and creep into his bo- 
som ; and so shall the love and favour of God be 
as deeply insinuated into you as into Christ him- 
self; and so shall God the Father, together with 
his beloved Son, wholly possess you and be pos- 
sessed of you; and so God and Christ and you 
shall become entirely one, according to Christ's 
prayer, John xvii. 22, that they may be one in us, 
as Thou and I am One. Marr. Mod. Divin. 

211. None of the Israelites under the Old Tes- 
tament were ever saved by the old Sinai covenant 



70 



SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



neither did any of them ever attain to holiness by 
the terms of it. Some of them did indeed perform 
the commandments of it sincerely, though imper- 
fectly : but those were justified first, and made 
partakers of life and holiness by virtue of that 
better covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob, which was the same in substance with the 
new covenant or testament, established by the 
blood of Christ. Had it not been for that better 
covenant, the Sinai covenant would have proved 
to them an occasion of no happiness, but only of 
sin and despair and destruction. Of itself, it was 
only a killing letter, the ministration of death and 
condemnation ; and therefore it is now abolished, 
2 Cor. iii. 6, 8, 9, 10, 11. We have cause to praise 
God for delivering his church by the blood of 
Christ from this yoke of bondage : and we have 
cause to abhor the device of those that would lay 
upon us a more grievous and terrible yoke, by 
turning our very new covenant into a covenant of 
sincere works, and leaving us no such better cove- 
nant, as the Israelites had under their yoke to re- 
lieve us in our extremity. Gal. i. 8. ii. 16. 

Mr. Marshal. 

212. He that can search in any measure, by a 
spiritual light, into his own heart and soul, will. 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 71 



find, ' God be merciful to me a sinner/ a better 
plea than any he can be furnished withal from any- 
worth of his own. Dan.ix. 18. Dr. Owen. 

213. Many there are who have in notion re- 
ceived the doctrine of free justification by the 
blood of Christ, whom, while they are secure in 
their ways, without trouble or distress, it is im- 
possible to persuade that they do not live and act 
upon that principle, and walk before Goo in the 
strength of it. Let any great conviction from the 
word, or by any imminent and pressing danger, 
befal these men, then their hearts are laid open ; 
then all their hope is in their repentance, amend- 
ment of life, performance of duties in a better 
manner ; and the iniquity of their self-righteous- 
ness is discovered. Jonah ii. 5, 6, &c. 1 Kings 
xxi. 27. Dr. Owen. 

214. God, I thank thee, I am not as other men, 
&c. is apt to creep into the heart in a strict course 
of duties. And this self-pleasing is the very root 
of self-righteousness, which, as it may defile the 
saints themselves, so it will destroy those who 
only in the strength of their convictions go forth 
after an holiness and righteousness : for it quickly 
produceth the deadly poisonous effect of spiritual 
pride, which is the greatest assimilation to the na- 



72 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



ture of the devil that the nature of man is capable 
of. Isa. lxv. 5. Luke xviii. 11. 2 Cor. xi. 13. xii. 
5> 9. Idem. 

215. Love enlarges the heart to Christ, and 
every thing of Christ; valuation, delight, satisfac- 
tion accompany it ; it makes the heart free, noble, 
ready for service, compassionate, zealous. To 
think of glorifying God without hearts warmed, 
enlarged, made tender, compassionate by gospel 
love, is to think to fly without wings, or to walk 
without feet. What day, almost what business, 
wherein our love is not put to the trial in all the 
properties of it ; whether it can bear and forbear, 
whether it can pity and relieve, whether it can 
hope all things, believe all things ; whether it can 
exercise itself towards friends and towards ene- 
mies ; whether it can give allowance for men's 
weakness and temptations ; whether it can value 
Christ above all, and rejoice in Him in the loss of 
all; and many the like things it is continually 
tried withal, Hub. iii. 17, 18. Now nothing so 
contracts and withers the heart, as to all these 
things, as the cares of this world do. 1 Cor. xiii. 
4, 5, 6, 7, 13. Col. iii. 1, 2, 12, 13. 1 Tim. vi. 
9, 10. 1 Pet. ii. 5, 6, 7, 8. Dr. Owen. 

216. Those graces of holiness have the most 
evident and legible characters of electing love 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 



73 



upon them which are most effectual in working 
us unto a conformity to Christ. That grace is 
certainly from an eternal spring which makes us 
like unto Jesus Christ. Of this sort are meekness, 
humility, patience, self-denial, contempt of the 
world, readiness to pass by wrongs, to forgive 
enemies, to love and to do good unto all. PhiL 
ii.4, 5,6, &c. Idem, 

217. No where doth the incredible love of God 
towards miserable mortals more evidently display 
itself than in Jesus Christ, which is suited to melt 
the heart frozen even into ice, and to kindle into 
ardent flames of mutual love; for the love of 
Christ constraineth us, 2 Cor. v. 14, 15. who, 
swallowed up in the meditation thereof,doth not cry 
out, ' Art Thou, O most loving Jesus, scorched no 
less with love to me than with the flames of divine 
wrath against my sins, and shall I grow lukewarm 
in my love to thee again? Hast Thou died for my 
salvation, and shall not I live to thy glory? Didst 
Thou for my sake descend into hell, and shall I 
not at thy command cheerfully tread the way to 
heaven ? Didst Thou deliver thyself to be tor- 
mented with the pains of hell, and shall not I give 
up myself to Thee, to bear thy yoke which is light, 
and thy burden which is sweet ? It is inexpres- 
sible how the pious soul, intent on such medita- 

E 



74 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

tions, is displeased with its own lukewarmness ; 
desiring and wishing for itself, that a mind an 
hundred times more capacious might be given, 
that it might be wholly filled with the love of 
Christ. Ps. cxix. 32. Mr. Herm. Witsius. 

218. He that hath the strongest faith, he that 
believer in the greatest degree the promise of par- 
don and the remission of sins, I dare boldly say 
he hath the holiest heart and the holiest life. 
Col. i. 10. Jam. ii. 18. Eph. ii. 10. 

Dr. Preston. 

219. Holiness in this life is absolutely necessary 
to salvation, not only as a means to the end, 
but, by a nobler kind of necessity, as part of the 
end itself. Though we are not saved by good 
works as procuring causes, yet we are saved to 
good works, as fruits and effects of saving grace, 
which God hath prepared that we should walk in 
them, Eph. ii. 10. It is indeed one part of our 
salvation to be delivered from the bondage of the 
covenant of works ; but the end of this is, not 
that we may have liberty to sin, (which is the 
worst of slavery,) but that we may fulfil the royal 
law of liberty, and that we may serve in newness 
of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter, Gal. 
iii. 13. Yea, holiness in this life is such a part 



EB1INENT DIVINES, &C. 



75 



of our salvation as is a necessary means to make 
us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the 
saints in heavenly light and glory. Without holi- 
ness we can never see God, and are as unfit for 
the Glorious Presence as swine for the presence- 
chamber of an earthly prince. Heb. xii. 14. 

Mr. Marshal. 

220. Those that with due affection believe sted- 
fastly on Christ for the free gift of all his salva- 
tion may find by experience, that they are carried 
forth by that faith, according to the measure of its 
strength or weakness, to love God heartily, be- 
cause He hath loved them first, to praise Him and 
to pray unto Him in the name of Christ. 

Idem. 

221. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they 
shall see God, Matth, v. 8. and without holiness 
no man shall see God, Heb. xii. 14. No gifts, 
no duties, no natural endowments, will evidence a 
right in heaven ; but the least measure of true 
holiness will secure heaven to the soul. As holi- 
ness is the soul's best evidence for heaven, so it is 
a continued spring of comfort to it in the way thi- 
ther. The purest and the sweetest pleasures in 
this world are the results of holiness. Till we come 
to live holily, we never live comfortably. Heaven 



76 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



is epitomized in holiness. And, to say no more, 
it is the peculiar mark by which God hath visibly 
distinguished his own from other men, Ps. iv. & 
the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for 
Himself. As if He had said, This is the man, and 
that the woman, to whom I intend to be good for 
ever : this is a man for me. O holiness, how sur- 
passingly glorious art thou ! Ps. 1. 2. lxiv. 10. 
xcvii. 11, 12. Mr. Flavel. 

222. It is matter of wonder men should admit 
the report and attestation of others concerning 
the truth and reality of godliness, who yet live 
strangers to it themselves, yea, should be at some 
toil and pains, and come at length to be almost 
Christians, without pursuing this in greater earnest. 
Matth. xiii. 20, 21. Jude 4, 10, 16. 

Mr. Fleming. 

223. It is often and truly spoken unto, how 
men may have their minds enlightened, their 
affections wrought upon, and- their lives much 
changed, and yet come short of true holiness. 
The best trial of this work is by its universality 
with respect unto its subject. If any thing re- 
main unsanctified in us, sin may there set up its 
throne and maintain its sovereignty : but where 
this work is true and real, however weak and im- 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 



77 



perfect it may be as unto its degrees, yet it pos- 
sesseth the whole person, and leaveth not the least 
hold unto sin, wherein it doth not continually 
combat and conflict with it. There is saving light 
in the mind, and life in the will, and love in the 
affections, and grace in the conscience, suited to 
its nature : there is nothing in us whereunto the 
power of holiness doth not reach according to its 
measure. 1 Thess. v. 23. Eph. iv. 13. Ps. cxix. 

Dr. Owen. 

224. If we design to be holy, let us constantly 
in our families, towards our relations, in churches, 
in our conversations in the world, and dealings 
with men, all men, towards our enemies and per- 
secutors, the worst of them, towards all mankind 
as we have opportunity, labour after a conformity 
unto God, and to express our likeness unto Him 
in this philanthropy, goodness, benignity, con- 
descension, readiness to forgive, help, and "relieve ; 
without which we neither are nor can be the chil- 
dren of our Father which is in heaven. Matth. v. 
44, 45. Luke x. 33, 37. 1 Pet. i. 15, 16. 

Dr. Owen. 

225. They are said to keep his testimonies who 
seek Him with the whole heart. Set the best saints' 
hands at work, and they shall fall short in many 



78 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



degrees ; but set the heart on work, and it in- 
wardly intends all : it has a will for all. It is 
impossible by any outward act to do this : with 
my mind I serve the law of God; but, when I 
come to put this in act, my good works are infi- 
nitely short of what my sincerity aims at ; I can 
never be so holy outwardly as inwardly I would 
be. This is the nature of sincerity, that it falls in 
with all the will of God, begs that every title of 
the will of God may be written in the soul and 
expressed in the life. Ps. cxix. 10. Rom. vii. 
22, 25. Mr. Tho. Cole. 

226. Is it not strange, what a multitude in these 
times profess the truth and yet hate it, and were 
never drawn with the cords of love I How very 
many have courted the name of Christian, and 
have wooed the shadow of religion, who never 
knew the truth thereof ; which certainly is a con- 
vincing evidence of the gospel's conquest, that so 
many knees should bow to the name of Jesus 
whose hearts were never bowed or really subdued 
to Him. 2 Tim. iii. 5. Mr. Fleming. 

227. There never was by any, nor ever can be, 
any act or duty of true holiness performed, where 
there was not, in order of nature antecedently, an 
habit of holiness in the persons by whom they are 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 79 

performed. Many acts and duties, for the sub- 
stance of them good and approveable, may be per- 
formed without; but no one that hath the 
proper form and nature of holiness can be so. 
And the reason is, because every act of true holi- 
ness must have something supernatural in it, from 
an internal renewed principle of grace : and that 
which hath not so, be it otherwise what it will, is 
no act or duty of true holiness. This is fully ex- 
pressed, Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27. " A new heart will 
I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, 
and cause you to walk in my statutes ; and ye shall 
keep my judgments and do them." The whole of 
all that actual obedience, and all those duties of 
holiness which God requireth of us, is contained 
in these expressions ; " Ye shall walk in my sta- 
tutes, and keep my judgments and do them." An- 
tecedent hereunto, and as the principal and cause 
thereof, God gives a new heart and a new spirit : 
this new heart is a heart with the law of God 
writen in it ; and this new spirit is the habitual 
inclination of that heart unto the life of God, or 
all duties of obedience. Jer. xxxi. 31, 33, 33, 34. 

Dr. Owen. 

228. Humility in all things is a necessary con- 
sequent of a due consideration of God's decree of 
election. For what were we when He set his heart 



80 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

•upon us to choose us and do us good for ever? 
Poor, lost, undone creatures, that lay perishing 
under the guilt of our apostacy from Him. What 
did He see in us to move Him to chuse us ? No- 
thing but sin and misery. What did he foresee 
that we would do of ourselves more than others, 
if He wrought not in us by his effectual grace ? 
Nothing but a continuance in sin and rebellion 
against Him, and that for ever. How should the 
thoughts hereof keep our souls in all humility 
and continual self-abasement ! For what have we 
in or from ourselves on the account whereof we 
should be lifted up ? Whereof, as the elect of 
God, let us put on humility in all things. And 
there is no grace whereby at this day we may more 
glorify God and the gospel, now the world is sink- 
ing into ruin under the weight of its own pride. 
The spirits of men, the looks of men, the tongues 
of men, the lives of men, are lifted up by their 
pride unto their destruction. The Good Lord 
keep professors from a share in the pride of these 
days ! Spiritual pride in foolish self-exalting 
opinions, and the pride of life in the fashions of the 
world, are the poison of this age. Deut. ix. 4, 5. 
Prov. xvi. 19, Ezek. xvi. 6, 7, 8. Col. iii. 12. 

Dr. Owen. 

229. An attentive consideration of the Lord 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 81 



Jesus is a most powerful means of sanctification. 
No where doth it more clearly appear what a vile, 
filthy thing sin is, than in the lowness, emptyings^ 
and sufferings of Christ. What clothed the Lord 
of glory with the contemptible form of a servant ? 
What pressed the magnanimous Lion of the tribe 
of Judah with such great horrors and griefs, as that 
under them He well-nigh fainted ? What stirred 
up the cruel forces of hell against Him ? What 
turned the affluence of divine consolations into 
most doleful drought? What mingled those most 
bitter bitternesses in the cup of divine wrath, with 
which the beloved Son of God was well-nigh exa- 
nimated ? Certainly sin was the cause of all these, 
Isa. liii. 5, Will not he who thinks of this burn 
with irreconcileable hatred thereof? Will he not 
endeavour to take revenge on such an outrageous 
monster, which so cruelly afflicted his Dearest 
Lord ; and which, unless it had been first slain, 
would have raged with the same cruelty against 
all those by whom it is so kindly received ? Will 
any, who seriously considers and believes this 
ever bring his mind to give up himself again a 
slave to that tyrant, from whose chains, glowing 
with the fire of hell, he could never have been de- 
livered but by the cursed death of the Son of 
God ? Thus the meditation of the sufferings of 



82 



.SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



Christ maketh us, that, being dead to sin, we 
should live unto righteousness. 1 Pet, ii. 24. 

Herm. WlTSIUS. 

230. The sufferings and obedience of Christ 
afford the highest motives to dissuade from sin 
and press to holiness, and lay a man under an in* 
finite obligation in point of gratitude to live unto 
God. That very grace, which enables him to be- 
lieve in Christ, equally inclines him to love God. 
A formal act of saving faith includes in it a desire 
of holiness, and purpose of using all proper means 
to attain it, and by the grace of God to live holily. 
For it is impossible for a man, acting rationally, 
to go to Christ and his righteousness for a right to 
pardon and life, without a sincere desire of that 
life which consists in holiness here as its beginning, 
and glory in heaven as its consummation. 1 Pet. 
i. 8. 1 John i. 6. ii. 3. iii. 23. 

Mr. Glascock. 

231. Hast thou, O Lord, from eternity had 
thoughts of glorifying me a poor miserable man, 
who am less than nothing ? and shall not I again 
always carry Thee in my eyes and in my bosom ! 
shall not I be delighted in meditating on Thee ! 
shall not I cry out, How precious are thy thoughts 
also unto me, O God ! how great is the sum of 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 83 

them! Ps. cxxxix. 17. Shall I not be affected 
with most sincere repentance of that time wherein 
so many hours, days, weeks, months, and years, 
have passed me, wherein I never had a holy, plea- 
sant thought of Thee ! Hast Thou out of mere 
love chosen me to salvation, and shall not I again 
chuse Thee for my Lord, my King, my Spouse, 
the Peculiar One of my soul, my chief or rather 
my only Delight ! Hast Thou chosen me out of 
so many others, who being left to themselves, 
eternal destruction abides them ; and shall I not 
with my utmost power endeavour to shine before 
others in love, in thy worship, and in all duties of 
holiness ! Hast Thou predestinated me to holi- 
ness, so lovely in itself, so necessary for me, as 
that without it there is no salvation ; and shall not 
I walk therein ! Shall I presume so to sophisti- 
cate with Thee, O thou brightest Teacher of truth, 
that, separating the end from the means, I shall 
securely promise to myself the end, as being pre- 
destinated thereto, in a neglect of the means, to 
which I am no less predestinated ! Ts thy purpose 
concerning my salvation fixed and immoveable ; 
and shall I every hour be changed, now for Thee," 
now again giving up my service to Satan ! Shall 
not I rather with so firm purpose adhere to Thee, 
that I should rather suffer a thousand deaths than 
perfidiously depart from Thee ! Shall not I be 



84 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the 
work of the Lord, knowing that my labour is not 
in vain in the Lord ! 1 Cor. xv. 58. Wilt Thou 
make me assured of thy love, which passeth all 
understanding ; and shall not I again love Thee 
with all my heart, with all my mind, with all my 
strength ! Wilt Thou assure me of my salvation ; 
and shall not I, having this hope, purify myself 
even as Thou art pure ! 1 John iii. 3. 

Who, understanding these things, will deny that 
the doctrine of election supplies to the pious soul 
plenty of matter for such and the like meditations ? 
and who will deny that in the practice of such 
meditation lies the very kernel of all holiness and 
godliness. 1 Thes. i. 4, 5. 1 Pet. i. 15, 16. 

Mr. Herman Witsius. 

232. Believers, as they were in the primitive 
times holy in their lives, so they professed this 
still to be the foundation of their holiness, Christ 
hath died, Christ is risen, Christ is in heaven ; 
therefore we must live so and so : and this was 
their great profession. It dasheth all the carnal 
gospellers in the world. It would shame men out 
of their sins, or out of their profession of Christ. 
If Paul were alive, he would spit in any man's face 
that will say he believeth in Christ, that died and 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 85 

rose again, and yet lived in sin. Rom. vi. 1, 2. 
2 Cor. v. 14, 15. Dr. Goodwin. 

233. The especial procuring cause of this holi- 
ness is the meditation of Christ. We are not in 
this matter concerned in any thing, let men call 
it what they please, virtue, holiness, or godliness, 
that hath not a special relation unto the Lord 
Christ and his mediation. Evangelical holiness is 
purchased for us by Him according to the tenor 
of the everlasting covenant, is promised unto us 
on his account, actually impetrated for us by his 
intercession, and communicated to us by his 
Spirit. And hereby we do not only cast off all 
the moral virtues of the heathens from having the 
least concernment herein, but all the principles 
and duties of persons professing Christianity, who 
are not actually and really implanted into Christ. 
For He it is who of God is made unto us sanctifi- 
cation. 1 Cor. i. 30. Johnxv.5. Luke xxii. 31. 

Dr. Owen. 

234. The life of God in us consists in confor- 
mity to Christ ; nor is the Holy Spirit, as the prin- 
cipal and efficient cause of it, given to us for any 
other end but to unite us to Him and make us like 
Him ! Wherefore the original gospel duty, which 
•animates and rectifies all others, is a design for 
conformity to Christ in all the gracious principles 



86 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

and qualifications of his holy soul, wherein the 
image of God in Him doth consist. His meek- 
ness, lowliness of mind, condescension unto all 
sorts of persons, his love and kindness to mankind, 
his readiness to do good to all, with patience and 
forbearance, are continually set before us in his 
example. With respect unto them it is required, 
that the same mind be in us that was in Christ 
Jesus, and that we walk in love, as He also loved 
us. Eph. v. 2. Phil. ii. 5. Rom. viii. 29. 

Dr. Owen. 

235. Nothing less than the entire renovation of 
the image of God in our souls will constitute us 
evangelically holy. No series of obediential act- 
ings, no observance of religious duties, no attend- 
ance unto actions, among men as morally virtuous 
and useful, how exact soever they may be, or how 
constant soever we may be unto them, will ever 
render us lovely or holy in the sight of God, un- 
less they all proceed . from the renovation of the 
image of God in us, or th'at habitual principle of 
spiritual life and power which renders us conform- 
able unto Him. Rom. xii. 2. Col iii. 10. 

Idem. 

236. Morality is not grace, because it doth not 
change nature : if it did, many of the heathen were 
as near to God as the best of Christians. What- 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 87 



ever may be done by the strength of nature cannot 
alter it ; for no nature can change itself. Poison 
may be great within the skin, like a viper's. Be 
we never so speckled with a reformation, freedom 
from gross sins argues not a friendship for God. 
None were ever so great enemies to Christ as the 
Pharisees, to whom Christ gave no better a title 
than that of the devil's children, and charges them 
with hatred both of Himself and Father. John 
xv. 24. Mr. Charnock. 

237. There is nothing man does more affect in 
the world than a self-sufficiency, and an indepen- 
dency on any other power than his own. This 
temper is as much rivetted in his nature as any 
other false principle whatever : for man does de- 
rive it from his first parents, as the prime legacy 
bequeathed to his nature : for it was the first thing 
discovered in man at his fall : he would be as 
God, independent on Him. Now God, to cross 
this principle, suffers his elect to lie in the grave 
till they stink, like Lazarus, that there may be no 
excuse to ascribe their resurrection to their own 
power. God lets men run so far in sin, that they 
do unman themselves, that He may proclaim to all 
the world that we are unable to do any thing of 
ourselves towards our recovery, without a supe- 
rior principle, Jer. ii. 31. 2 Cor. iii. 5. Job xxi. 



88 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

14. To turn to God in ways of righteousness is 
contrary to the stream of corrupt nature; and 
therefore it must be overpowered by a flood of 
almighty grace, as the stream of the river is by 
the tide of the sea. Therefore, when you see a 
man cast away his pleasures, deprive himself of 
those contentments to which his soul was once 
knit, and walk in paths contrary to corrupt nature, 
you may search for the cause any where rather 
than in nature itself. Jer. xiii. 23. Eph. i. 19. 
I Pet. i.3. Mr. Charnock. 

238. We believe this day the resurrection of the 
dead, and an undoubted accomplishment of that 
truth which to natural reason would seem a strange 
contradiction. But should we not consider that 
the same truth, though in a spiritual way, yet most 
visibly and upon a higher account, is verified be- 
fore our eyes ; how it is sure, such are quickened 
and brought to life who were dead in their sins, 
were pas°t feeling, yea, for many years have lain 
as in a cold grave, without sense of God or their 
own case, who in one moment, at the voice of the 
word, have been made to stir and arise ! And is 
not this something as discernibly above nature, or 
the influence of second causes, yea, as marvellous 
an act of divine power as the resurrection of the 
dead in the last day, which seems to some such a 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 



89 



dark and strange thing to believe? John v. 25. 
xi. 25. Eph.v. 14. Mr. Fleming. 

239. It is the peculiar work of the Spirit to 
open the eyes and enlighten the soul by an affec- 
tive illumination, and discover to us the evidence 
of divine truths ; nor can the proposal of the ob- 
ject with the greatest certainty of evidence, or by 
mortal reason, cause men to discern spiritual 
things spiritually ; since there must be a super- 
natural light, and suiting of the visive faculty to 
the object. Luke xxvi. 45. 1 Cor. ii. 14. Jer, 
xxiv. 7. Mr. Fleming. 

240. God's creating power drew the world out 
of nothing, but his converting power frames the 
new creature out of something worse than nothing. 
What power must that be which can stop the tide 
of the sea, and make it suddenly recoil back! 
What a vast power must that be that can change 
a black cloud into a glorious sun ? This and more 
doth God do in conversion ; he doth not only 
take smooth pieces of the softest matter, but the 
ruggedest timber, full of knots, to plane, and shew 
his strength and art upon. It is not so great a 
work to raise many thousands killed in battle as 
to gospelize one dead soul. 2 Cor. iv. 6. Eph. i. 
19. ii. 1,5. Mr. Charnock. 



90 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

241. We are indeed bidden to compel men to 
come in ; but, unless there be another compellor, 
that is, except there be the Spirit within to do it, 
the work is not done ; unless there be two com- 
pilers at the same time, the Holy Ghost preach- 
ing within to your hearts when we preach to your 
ears ; except there be two callers, that, when we 
call men, the Lord sends his Spirit to call you 
too ; it is in vain. For you must know, that it is 
as hard a thing to move a man to leave his plea- 
sures and divers lusts, and vain conversation, as to 
turn the whole course of nature. Now, unless 
there be an almighty power to turn this course of 
nature, no man will ever come to Christ. A man 
may as well say, I will make a clod of earth a 
shining star, as to say he can make the carnal and 
dead heart of man like the image of God. It 
must be the Spirit of God Himself that must do 
it : it is a work above nature. Eph. i. 19. 

Dr. Preston. 

242. The most refined and ingenious sort of 
unregenerate men have nothing in them which is 
more excellent than common grace ; and common 
grace leaves them in a state of nature, under the 
power of sin, and in the very suburbs of hell, 
wholly at the command of Satan. And if any man 
think otherwise, let him take heed that very 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 91 



thought doth not nail him fast to that unregenerate 
and cursed state for evermore. 1 Cor. ii. 19 to 
29. Dr. Chenelles. 

243. To a perfect and proper knowledge of su- 
pernatural things the revelation of the object is 
not sufficient, nor a due use of reason in the sub- 
ject; but moreover there is required the grace of 
Christ, and the special assistance of the Holy- 
Spirit, whereby the heart may be opened and sof- 
tened, and a spiritual taste and relish given, suited 
to the true sweetness of supernatural truths. Ps. 
cxix. 18, 34. Dr. Reynolds. 

244. Heavenly things exceel the reach of rea- 
son, for they are above right reason : they are con- 
trary to the wisdom of the flesh, for they are 
against depraved nature. Nature stands in need 
of grace, that the faculties may be rightly dis- 
posed to receive supernatural objects ; and grace 
uses nature, that by the clearness of the mind, the 
perspicuity of the judgement, and the light of good 
learning, the progress in the study of the Holy 
Scriptures may be more successful. 1 Cor. ii. 14. 
2 Tim. iii. 14, 15. Idem. 

245. The least spark of saving, regenerating 
grace is wrought in the soul by the Holy Ghost, 
as given unto men to dwell in them and to abide 



92 SELECT SENTENCES PROM 

with them. He is the water given by Jesus Christ 
unto believers, which is in them a well of water 
springing up to everlasting life, John iv. 14. First 
they receive the water, the spring itself, that is the 
Holy Spirit, and from thence living waters do 
arise up in them; they are wrought,, effected, pro- 
duced by the Spirit which is given to them, Ezek. 
xi. 19. The least of saving grace, such as is pe- 
culiar to them that are regenerate, is spirit, John 
iii. 6. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit; 
whatever it is that is so born, it is spirit : it hath 
a spiritual being, and it is not educible by any 
means out of the principles of nature. So, 2 Cor. 
v. 17, it is said to be a new creature. Be it never 
so little or so great, however it may differ in de- 
grees in one and in another, yet the nature of it is 
the same in all : it is a new creature. As the least 
worm of the earth, in the order of the old creation, 
is as much a creature as the sun, yea, or the most 
glorious angel in heaven ; so, in the order of the 
new creation, the least spark or dram of true grace, 
that is from the sanctifying Spirit, is a new crea- 
ture, no less than the highest faith or love that 
ever was in the chiefest of the apostles. Now 
that which is spirit, and that which is not spirit, 
that which hath a new spiritual being, and that 
which hath none, whatever appearance there may 
be among them, yet they differ specifically from 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 93 

one another : and thus it is with the saving grace 
that is in a regenerate man, and those common 
graces which are in others that are not so. Acts 
ii. 33. Tit. in. 5, 6. Rom. viii. 5. 

Dr. Owen. 

246. Such as have passed the new birth must 
know a spiritual and new life, with which they 
were not born, and is from no natural cause, but 
formed and wrought within by the Spirit, whereof 
there is as certain and undeniable a demonstration 
as they are sure they breathe and have a natural 
life ; a life that hath its peculiar operations and 
vital acts, put forth in its breathings, delights, and 
desires, in a near converse with the Lord, as truly 
as any acts of this natural life; with those sensi- 
ble languishings and overcloudings thereof, as 
well as enjoy mentsjand pleasures proper to its own 
nature, as the influences and breathings of the 
Spirit of the Lord are let forth or restrained. It 
is sure, nothing can be more expressly shewed 
than this from the whole Scripture, and how it 
follows on an union with Jesus Christ, in whom it 
is hid. Jer. xxxi. S3. John iii. 5. Gal ii. 20. 
Jo^vi. 56,57. Mr. Fleming. 

247. All zealous, devout people in a natural re- 
ligion are enemies to the gospel. By natural re- 
ligion, I mean that which is the product of the 



94 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

remnant of God's image in fallen man, a little 
improved by the light of God's word. All such 
cannot endure to hear that God's law must be 
perfectly fulfilled in every tittle of it, or no man 
can be saved by doing : that they must all perish 
for ever who have not the righteousness of a man 
who never sinned, who is also God over all 
blessed for ever, to shelter and cover them from a 
holy God's anger, and to render them accepted of 
Him : that this righteousness is put on by the 
grace of God, and a man must betake himself to 
it, and receive it as a naked, blushing sinner : that 
no man can do any thing that is good till gospel- 
grace renew him, and make him first a good man. 
This they never will receive ; but do still think a 
man may grow good by doing good. Mat. xix. 
16. 1 Cor. ii. 14. Johnv. 40. Mr. Trail. 

248. If a man who had been scorched in hell 
should again enjoy his wonted pleasures, and have 
all the while a fresh remembrance of his late tor- 
ments, were not his will changed by powerful 
grace, he would stand it out as stiffly against God 
as ever, notwithstanding those terrible marks of 
wrath, and be without a holy fear of that justice 
which he had felt. Prov. xxvii. 22. Rev. xvi. 
9 ii * Mr. Chaenock. 

249. What is the reason carnal men leave Christ 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 



95 



for the pleasures of the world ? Because the plea- 
sures of the world are real things to them. There- 
fore, unless God make the things of another world 
real too, a man will never leave realities for no- 
tions. All that reason or notions can represent 
of Christ will never take a man's heart off from the 
real things he sees here below ; and therefore God 
comes and weighs down the reality of the things 
of this world by the reality of the things of the 
other world. Prov. iii. 17. viii. 29, 35. Jer. xxiii. 
28. Dr. Goodwin. 

250. You may as soon wash a blackmoor white, 
as cleanse a defiled conscience by duties, ordi- 
nances, and moral endeavours, without Christ : 
yea, they will but make thee worse : for the Lord 
will not bless them, when carnally trusted to and 
rested in, without Christ. Jer. ii. 22. xiii. 23. 
John xv. 5. Mr. Sam. Mather. 

251. To say that we have a sufficiency in our- 
selves so much as to think a good thought, to do 
any thing as we ought, any power, any ability that 
is our own, or in us by nature, however externally 
excited and guided by motives, directions, rea- 
sons, encouragements of what sort soever> to be- 
lieve or obey the gospel savingly in any one in- 
stance, is to overthrow the gospel, and the faith of 



96 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

the catholic church in all ages. 2 Cor. iii. 5. 
Ps. lxxxvii. 7. Dr. Owen. 

252. As for me, I find more solid truth in that 
one scripture, which tells us that " The heart is 
deceitful above all things,and desperately wicked." 
Jer. xvi. 9, than in many volumes of idle anti- 
scriptural notions, reared up on the subtile argu- 
ings of men, whose eyes have never been opened 
to see the plague of their own hearts, and who 
therefore run out in asserting such an ability and 
power, and inclination to good in man, as neither 
scripture, nor the experience of such as have their 
eyes in the least measure opened* admits of. How- 
ever, if others will think that there are in them 
such good inclinations,! will quit my part in them. 
Woful experience convinces me, and obliges me 
to acknowledge to my own shame, that I never 
looked towards the Lord's way, save when He 
drew me. " I was as a bullock unaccustomed to 
the yoke." I never went longer in it than the 
force lasted : I inclined to sit down, and sat in- 
deed down at every step ; no great sign I had any 
heart to the way ! I never got up again, but 
when the Lord's power was of new put forth. 
I all this while never went one step but with a 
grudge ; I frequently looked back to Sodom ; I 
have been as a backsliding heifer; I was grieved 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 97 

for what I left behind, my heart clove to what my 
light had the greatest opposition to. Thus 
I was one of them that rebel against light. I often 
refused where the command was plainest. When 
I was brought into a strait, I betook myself ra- 
ther to any shift than to Christ. Sin bit me, and 
yet I loved it : my heart deceived me often, and 
yet I trusted in it rather than in God. God dealt 
with me in a way of kindness ; but when he spake 
to me in my prosperity, I would not hear ^ he 
smote me, and I went on frowardly : I never parted 
with any sin, till God beat me and drove me from 
it, and hedged in my way. Surely this looks like 
the heart deceitful above all things, and despe- 
rately wicked. Gen. vi. 5. Rom. iii. 10, 11, 12. 
Prov. xxviii. 26. John v. 40. 

Mr. Halyb URTON. 
253. For any to say that a will to believe is not 
purchased by Christ, and effectually applied by 
Him, but depends on something to be done by 
men, 1S a great derogation to the merit of his suf- 
ferings. It is, in effect, to steal a jewel from our 
Sovereign's crown, and to wreath it on a fool's 
cap. Ps. ex. 3. Heb.xii.2, 

Mr. Elisha Cole. 
254 Seeking a pure life without a pure nature 
is building without a foundation : and there is no 



98 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

seeking a new nature from the law ; for it bid 
make bricks without straw, and saith to the cripple, 
walk, without giving any strength. Jer. xm. 23. 
D - o Mr. Marshal. 

Rom. vm. o. 

255. Whatever we do of ourselves, in answer 
to our convictions, is a covering, not a cleansing : 
and if we die in this condition, unwashed, un- 
cleansed, unpurifled, it is utterly impossible that 
ever we should be admitted into the blessed pre- 
sence of the holy God, Rev. xxi. 27. Let no man 
deceive you with vain words. It is not the doing 
a few good works, it is not an outward profession 
of religion, that will give you an access with joy 
unto God. Shame will cover you when it will be 
too late. Unless you are washed by the Spint of 
God, and in the blood of Christ, from the pollu- 
tions of your natures, you shall not inherit the 
kingdom of God, 1 Co, vi. 9, 10, 11. Yea, you 
will be an horrid spectacle unto saints and angels, 
vea to yourselves, to one another, when the 
shame of your nakedness shall be made to appear. 
If therefore you would not perish, and that eter- 
nally ; if you would not perish as base, denied 
creatures, and abhorring unto all flesh, then, when 
your pride, and your wealth, *f /^ ^ J' 
Ld your ornaments, and your duties, will stand 
you in no stead ; look out betimes after that only 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 99 



way of purifying and cleansing your souls which 
God hath ordained. Heb. ix. 22. 1 John i. 7. 
1 Pet. i. 18, 19. Dr. Owen. 

256. By raising any soul from a death in sin, 
God doth evidence the particular value of Christ's 
blood for that soul ; as He did, in raising Christ, 
evidence the general fulness of that satisfaction. 
And this He will do, even to the end of the world. 
All his grace in all ages, even to the end of the 
world, shall run through this channel, to put cre- 
dit and honour upon Christ. Now, the greater 
the sin is that is pardoned, and the greater the 
sinner is that is converted, the more it shews the 
sufficiency of the price Christ paid. 1 Cor. vi. 20. 
Rev - v - 9 - Mr. Charnock. 

257. To go and venture upon God, upon the 
freedom of his grace, upon the promises of God, 
upon the commands of God, and to stand at 
God's arbitrement, and to refer a man's will to his 
will, and to cast a man's self into those everlast- 
ing arms, it is as if a man should leave his own 
standing, and cast himself into the arms of a 
mighty giant that stands upon another pinnacle : 
one whom he also has often wronged and abused ; 
and he himself hath no hands to lay upon him 
neither, but he must depend upon his catching 
him : here is the greatest venture, the greatest 



100 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



trust, the greatest self-denial that can be. Thus 
this heart throws itself out of all possibilities, and 
submits to the free-grace of God in Christ: and 
this is done in believing. Isa. viii. 17. 1. 10. 
Ps. lxii. 8. Mr. Goodwin, 

258. By nature a man loadeth himself with a 
world of vanities ; he is shipped for this world : 
and that is it which his eye aimeth at, to make 
himself happy in the world in something or other, 
Now, my brethren, God meets him in the way, 
takes him off from all the ends that were for him- 
self, putteth in a new pilot, setteth up a new load- 
star, giveth him a new compass ; sendeth his 
blessed Spirit into his heart, that, as a wind, 
bloweth him clean another way : all the lading he 
hath by nature, he throweth them all clean over- 
board. Thus God dealeth with a man when He 
tnrneth him, Eph. ii. 13. Phil. iii. 7, 8. Hos. 
xiv. 3. Paul was a ship richly laden. I was a 
scholar, saith he, and profited in the Jewish lan- 
guage more than all my teachers : I had much to 
boast of. God comes, and He throws them all 
overboard. I count all things but as dross and 
dung in comparison of the knowledge of Christ. 
What made Paul do this ? God had touched his 
heart with this loadstone, to the direction of which 
all must be conformed ; and now, saith he, I must 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 101 

needs aim at God's glory in all things : herein 
lieth the work of conversion. Now, to work such 
a work as this in a man, to touch a man's heart 
thus, is as much as to throw the earth off its 
centre. If you should see the earth go off its 
centre, and fix itself in the same sphere with the 
sun, and go along with the same pace and with the 
same motion, you would think an almighty power 
must go to do all this. This Goo doth. If a man 
moveth himself, though it be to God, as self-love 
will sometimes do, yet still he is upon his own 
centre; all is for himself. God cometh and 
turneth him off his own hinges, takes him off from 
his own bottom, placeth him in the same sphere 
„itL W Lkn aim at Him in all things. 

I his is holiness: and to put this principle into a 
man's heart, nothing but the almighty power of 
God can do it : it is above all the creation. Eph. 
i. 19. ii.7, 10. Acts xx. 24. Dr. Goodwin. 

259. All unregenerate persons, whether Jews 
or Gentiles, will have a fling at the gospel ; it is 
contrary to them, and they are contrary to it ; 
they cannot reach the mystery of it, and therefore 
do slight and contemn it. But all who are effec- 
tually called, and savingly enlightened, do highly 
prize it ; they see much of the power and wisdom 
of God in that excellent contrivance of man's sal- 



102 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

vation by Christ ; they desire to know nothing 
but Christ, and Him crucified. 1 Cor. ii. 14. 
2 Cor. iv. 3. Mr. Tho.Cole. 

260. The reason of an ungenerate man's unwil- 
lingness to holy duties lies in this, that they are 
appointed, and the tendency of them is, to bring 
God and their hearts together; which is indeed 
to bring two enemies together ; for such are their 
hearts and God. And the reason of a regenerate 
man's willingness is, that in the duty two friends 
meet together; God, who hath from everlasting 
owned the soul, and the soul who hath chosen 
God to be his God. Job xxi. 14. Ps. lxxiii. 25. 
xliii. 4. Dr - Goodwin. 

o^i. *<, i~ ~ v^nv, C iiiiiienx to Know that the 

scripture hath such a witness as experience, and 
that there is such a trade and correspondence as 
this betwixt the saints and the word, which lieth 
not in the common road of the world. O what 
an empty thing would religion be, if it had not 
this word experience in its grammar; that secret 
and sure mark whereby the Christian knoweth the 
scripture is of God ; how thus the Lord hath often 
sealed their instruction in a dark plunge! John 
iv. 42. O what an excellent interpreter is expe- 
rience ; Taste and see! for thus the serious Chris- 
tian getteth a view of the scripture and spiritual 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 103 

things, which the most subtile and piercing eye 
of unsanctified schoolmen cannot reach. Ps. 
xxxiv. 8. cxvi. 10. 2 Tim. i. 12. 1 Pet. ii. 3. 
Gal. ii. 16. Heb.iv. 3. ButO! this cannot be 
found in books ; men will not meet with it in a 
throng of choicest notions : it confoundeth the 
wise and disputer of this world ; while the meanest 
and most simple Christian often knoweth more 
than those of greatest parts. 1 Cor. ii. 14. Matth. 
xi. 25. Mr. Fleming. 

262. Doth not this argument of experience, by 
a very clear demonstration, witness that great 
truth of a Godhead, whereon the whole super- 
structure of truth and godliness doth stand ? yea, 
in another manner, doth enforce on men the per- 
suasion of this by a more near and convincing 
discovery than the greatest works of God, or those 
glorious appearances of his power and wisdom in 
the heavens and earth do ? It is true, these bring 
Him near to our eye and ear : but O ! this brings 
the blessed and invisible God nearer, into the 
heart and soul, that we may both taste and see 
that surely He is, and is that which in the scrip- 
ture He is declared to be. It is not the contem- 
plation of nature, in its highest flight, can answer 
such an assault of the devil, which may overtake 
the most established Christian about the being of 



J 04 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



God. But there is a demonstration within, which 
goes farther than the judgement, and passeth na- 
tural understanding; whence we feel, we taste, we 
enjoy ; yea, his voice is heard in the soul, which 
we surely know to be His. 1 John i. 3. 1 Pet. 
ii. 3. Ps. lxxxix. 15. Mr. Fleming. 

263. There is nothing of more certainty to the 
souls of any than what they have real spiritual 
experience of. When the things about which men 
are conversant lie only in notion, and are ration- 
ally discoursed or debated, much deceit may lie 
under all : but, when the things between God and 
the soul come to be realized by practical experi- 
ence, they give a never-failing certainty of them- 
selves. Ps, cxvi. 10. John vi. 69. 

Dr. Owen. 

264. When the heart is cast indeed into the 
mould of the doctrine that the mind embraceth, 
when the evidence and necessity of the truth 
abides in us, when not only the sense of the words 
is in our heads, but the sense of the things abides 
in our nearts, when we have communion with 
God in the doctrines we contend for, then shall 
we be garrisoned by the grace of God against all 
the assaults of men; and without this, all our 
contending is, as to ourselves, of no value. What 
am I the better, if I can dispute that Christ is 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 105 

God, but have no sense or sweetness in my heart 
from hence, that He is a Gob in covenant with 
my soul ? What will it avail me to evince by tes- 
timonies and arguments, that He hath made satis- 
faction for sin, if, through my unbelief, the wrath 
of God abides upon me, and I have no experience 
of my own being made the righteousness of God 
in Him; if I find not, in my standing before God, 
the excellency of having my sins imputed to Him, 
and his righteousness imputed to me? Will it 
be any advantage to me in the issue, to profess 
and dispute that God works the conversion of a 
sinner by the irresistible grace of his Spirit, if I 
was never acquainted experimentally with the 
deadness and utter impotence to good, that oppo- 
sition to the law of God which is in my own soul 
by nature, with the efficacy of the exceeding great- 
ness of the power of God, in quickening, enlight- 
ening, and bringing forth the fruits of obedience 
in me? Rev. iii. 1. 1 Cor. i. 24. ii. 5. It is the 
power of the truth in the heart alone that will 
make us cleave unto it, indeed, in the hour of 
temptation. Let us not then think that we are 
any thing the better for our conviction of the truths 
of the great doctrines of the gospel, for which we 
contend, unless we find the power of the truths 
abiding in our own hearts, and have a continual 
f 2 



106 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



experience of their necessity and excellency in 
our standing before God, and our communion with 
Him. 1 The*, i. 5. 2 Tim. i. 12. Dr. Owen. 

265. Experience is indeed a strong demonstra- 
tion, and it is such a witness as leaves no room for 
debate ; for here the truth is felt, proved, and 
acted on the heart, which the Christian knoweth 
well, and is as sure of, as he is persuaded that he 
liveth, or that the sun, when it shineth, hath life 
and warmness therewith. It is true, the world 
liveth at a great distance with this; they only 
converse with the sound of such a thing ; and we 
know the naked theory of scripture-truth had but 
a short reach, and that it differs as far from that 
which a serious practical Christian hath, as the 
sight of a country in a map is from the real dis- 
covery of the same ; where the difference is not in 
the degree, but in the kind. Ps. xxxiv. 8. lxiii. 
1 to 7. 1 Pet. ii. 3. Mr. Fleming. 

266. Consider with thyself, when thou comest 
to die, what wilt thou say then ? Satan will come 
then, and lay thy sins to thy charge. Thou must 
think what thou hast to answer. Thou hast no- 
thing to say but, I am in Christ. Well ; but how 
dost thou prove that ? He will ask thee that ques- 
tion, Art thou a new creature ? If thou findest 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 107 

that thou art not a new creature, thou art not in 
Christ ; and thou needest not a new condemna- 
tion, thou art condemned already, John iii. 3, 18* 
Now examine, Canst thou do that which no man 
else can do that is a mere natural man ? Thou 
must have a strength put into thee which none 
can reach that hath nothing but nature in him. 
Canst thou love the Loud Jesus and the saints ? 
An hypocrite can counterfeit many things, but 
not love. Again, canst thou delight in the law 
of God in the inward man? I ask not if thou 
canst approve of it ; but canst thou delight in it, 
counting it as thy meat and drink to do the will 
of thy Father ? This is a thing which cannot be 
counterfeited. So, canst thou deny thyself? I ask 
not if thou canst deny this or that particular sin, but 
the whole body of sin, if thou favourest the things 
of the Spirit ; if thou canst mortify the deeds of 
the body, and walk according to the Spirit? If 
thou art a new creature, thou must find thyself 
able to do that which no natural man can do, and 
which thyself could never do before. For other- 
wise, Wha't wilt thou answer for thyself when the 
destroying angel shall come ? If he find not in 
thee more than nature, the destruction shall pass 
on thee : as it was in the passover ; except there 
was found blood on the door-posts, they died for 



108 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

it. Now the blood that this destroying angel 
must see, when he shall pass over the world, is 
that which is more than nature : you must know 
the blood of Christ leaves an impression ; their 
garments were made white in the blood of the 
Lamb ; that is, not only the guilt of sin is taken 
away, but a new virtue is put on them, a new effi- 
cacy is put into them : and if thou hast not the 
virtue of the blood of Christ as well to purge thy 
conscience from dead works as to take away the 
guilt of sin, all is nothing. I say, except thou 
art a new creature, the destroying angel shall not 
spare thee, but thy sins shall be cast on thy con- 
science ; and, when God shall cast it on thy 
conscience, what wilt thou say ? If thou find not 
these two things, a weakening of this old nature, 
an healing of sin, and something more than na- 
ture, thou canst not apply the comfort of justifi- 
cation, thou art not in Christ ; for thou art not a 
new creature, which consists of these two parts, 
vivification and mortification. Rom. vi. 22. viii. 
5, 6. 2 Cor. v. 17. vi. 17. Eph. ii. 10. iv. 22, 
23,24. v. 17. Col i. 21. 2 Tim. ii. 19. 

Dr. Preston. 

267. There is nothing that doth truly and un- 
feignedly root wickedness out of the heart of man, 
but only the true tranquillity of the mind, or the 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 109 

rest of the soul in God. And to say as the thing 
is, This is such a peace and such a rest to the 
creature in the Creator, that, according to the mea- 
sure of its establishment by faith, no created com- 
prehensible thing can either add to it or detract 
from it : the increase of a kingdom cannot aug- 
ment it, the greatest losses and crosses in worldly 
things cannot diminish it. A believer's good 
works do all flow from it. Neither sin nor Satan, 
law nor conscience, hell nor grave, can quite ex- 
tinguish it ; for it is the Lord alone that main- 
tains it. It is the pleasant face of God in Christ 
that puts gladness into his heart, Ps. iv. 7. and 
when that face is hid, then is he troubled, Ps. 
xxx. 7. Though the peace and joy of true be- 
lievers may be extenuated or diminished, yet doth 
the testimony of their being in nature remain so 
strong, that they could skill to say, yea, even when 
they have felt God to be withdrawing Himself 
from them, My God, my God, why hast thou 
forsaken me? Ps. xxii. 1. yea, and in the night of 
God's absence to remain confident, that though 
sorrow be over night, yet joy will come in -the 
morning : nay, though the Loud should seem to 
kill them with unkindness, yet will they put their 
trust in Him, knowing that, for all this, their 
Redeemer liveth : so strong is their joy in the 
Lord. These are the people that are kept in per- 



110 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

feet peace, because their minds are stayed on the 
Lord, Isa. xxvi. 3. Wherefore take heed of 
deeming any state happy, until you come to find 
this true peace and rest to your souls in God. 
Hos. vi. 1. Isa. xlviii. 22. Job xiii. 15, 19, 25. 

Mark. Mod.Divin. 

268. In the present beholding the glory of 
Christ, the life and power of faith are most emi- 
nently acted ; and from this exercise of faith doth 
love unto Christ principally (if not solely) arise 
and spring. If therefore we desire to have faith 
in its vigour, or love in its power, giving rest, 
complacency, and satisfaction to our own souls, 
we are to seek for them in the diligent discharge 
of this duty: elsewhere they will not be found. 
Herein would I live, herein would I die ; herein 
would I dwell in my thoughts and affections, to 
the withering and consumption of all the painted 
beauties of this world, unto the crucifying all 
things here below, until they become unto me a 
dead and deformed thing, no way meet for affec- 
tionate embraces. Phil, iii. 7, 8, 9, 10. 

Dr. Owen. 

269. Hath he the heart of a Christian who doth 
not often meditate on the death of his Saviour, 
who doth not derive his life from it? Who can 
look into the gospel, and not fix on those lines 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. Ill 



which either immediately and directly, or through 
some other paths of divine grace and wisdom, do 
lead him thereunto ? Can any have believing 
thoughts concerning the death of Christ, and not 
have his heart affected with ardent love unto his 
person ? Christ in the gospel is evidently set forth 
crucified before us. Can any by the eye of faith 
look on this blessed dying Redeemer, and suppose 
love unto his person to be nothing but the work 
of fancy or imagination ? They know the con- 
trary who always bear about in the body the 
dying of the Lord Jesus, as the apostle speaks, 
2 Cor. iv. 10. As his whole name, in all that He 
did, is as ointment poured forth, for which the 
virgins love Him, Song i. 3. so this precious per- 
fume of his death is that wherewith their hearts 
are ravished in a peculiar manner. 2 Cor. v. 14, 
15. 1 Cor. ii. 2. Dr. Owen. 

270. The principal design of their whole lives, 
to whom Christ is precious, is to acquaint them- 
selves with Him; the mystery of the wisdom, 
grace, and love of God in his person and medita- 
tion, as revealed unto us in the scripture, which 
is life eternal, John xvii. 3. to trust to Him and 
unto Him as to all the everlasting concernments 
of their souls, to love and honour Him with all 



112 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



their hearts, to endeavour after conformity unto 
Him in all those characters of divine goodness 
and holiness which are represented unto them in 
Him. In these things consist the soul, life, 
power, beauty and excellency, and efficacy of the 
Christian religion ; without which, whatever out- 
ward ornaments may be put upon its exercise, it is 
but a useless, lifeless carcass. Phil. iii. 8, 9, 10, 
1] 12. Dr. Owen. 

271. See to whom you are beholden for your 
lives, liberties, comforts, and all that you enjoy 
in this world. Is it not Christ, who orders all for 
you ? He indeed is in heaven, out of your sight ; 
but, though you see Him not, He sees you, and 
takes care of all your concerns. In all thy ways 
acknowledge Him, Prov. iii. 6. It is He that 
hath espied out that state thou art in, as most 
proper for thee. It is Christ that hath done all 
for thee that is done. He looks down from hea- 
ven upon all that fear Him : He sees when you are 
in danger by temptation, and casts in a provi- 
dence (you know not how) to hinder it: He sees 
when you are sad, and orders reviving provi- 
dences to refresh you : He sees when corruptions 
prevail, and orders humbling providences to purge 
them: whatever mercies you have received, all 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 



113 



along the way you have gone hitherto, are the 
orderings of Christ for you* 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. Ps. 
xxxvii. 23. Jer. x. 23. 2 Chron. xvi. 9. 

Mr- Flavel. 

272. Of all acts of faith, this of pure trust doth 
honour God most, and hath indeed more of faith 
in it : the purer the trust is, the greater the trust 
is ; and the greater the trust is, the greater the 
faith is ; and the greater the faith, the more 
honour comes to God. The end why God hath 
ordained faith is, that his free grace might be glo- 
rified : now his free grace is glorified by no act of 
faith more than by this of pure trusting in Him. 
In Rom. iv. 20. where Abraham's faith is set out 
to us, it is set out by this, that he gave glory to 
God. You do not honour God so much by your 
love, you do not honour Him so much by being 
assured of his love, as you do by trusting in his 
love. It magnifies the sovereignty of God, which 
God aims at to magnify in our salvation : it leaves 
the soul at God's feet ; for that is the posture of 
the soul, when it says, Here am I, and I will trust 
in Thee alone. It magnifies the faithfulness of 
God; and faithfulness is that attribute which, in 
one that makes a promise, is the chief thing he 
aims at. Now faith takes hold on Christ through 
a promise ; therefore it is a grace suited and fitted 



114 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

to magnify the faithfulness of God more than 
loving Him. If a man have assurance, he doth 
glorify God in a way of rejoicing, in a way of 
triumphing, in a way of thankfulness ; but pure 
trust doth glorify God another way, it glorifies 
God in a way of obedience. Oftentimes a man 
trusteth God for the salvation of his soul, and 
goes on so to do, and doth not of a long time 
know that God hath received him : he hath not 
received an earnest penny a long while of what 
he trusted God for (for joy in the Holy Ghost is 
the reward of faith). Now, to stand thus out of 
purse for many years before a man receives a 
penny, this is a great and mighty trust. For a 
man to venture to sea without either sail, oar, or 
mast, or any thing of his own, and to be wafted 
by Jesus Christ and free grace, to commit himself 
to those winds which shall blow from Him 
that promise He makes ; this is the great truth ; 
and this the soul doth when he comes to Christ, 
Job xiii. 15. Isa. 1. 10. Dan. iii. 17, 18. Jonah 
ii. 4. John vi. 68, 69. Dr. Goodwin. 

273. Doctrines of the greatest weight are talked 
of and treated about with a vain, unconcerned 
frame of spirit, as if men contended about opi- 
nions and school-points, rather than about the 
oracles of God and matters of faith. But if men's 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 115 



hearts were seen by themselves, if sin were felt, 
if men's consciences were enlivened, if God's holy- 
law were known in its exactness and severity, and 
the glory and the majesty of the law-giver shin- 
ing before men's eyes, if men were living as 
leaving time and launching forth into eternity, 
the gospel salvation by Jesus Christ would be more 
regarded. Acts xvi. 29, 30. Mic. vi. 6, 7. 

Mr. Trail. 

274. Those that receive Christ with an un- 
feigned faith shall never want a wedding-garment 
to adorn them in the sight of God. Faith itself 
is very precious in the sight of God, and most 
holy, 2 Pet. i. 1 7 '"^ 00 • aoD l0Yes lt > Decause 
it giveth the glory of our salvation only to the 
free grace of God in Christ, Rom. iv. 16. and re- 
nounced all dependance on any conditions that 
we can perform to procure a right to Christ, or to 
make ourselves acceptable to Him. The excel- 
lency of faith lies in this, that it accounteth not 
itself, nor any other work of ours, a sufficient or- 
nament to make us acceptable in the sight of God. 
It will not be our wedding-garment itself ; but it 
buyeth of Christ white raiment, that we may be 
clothed, and that the shame of our nakedness 
may not appear, Rev. iii. 18. Mr. Marshal. 

275. That faith which works in the soul a 



116 



SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



gracious persuasion of the excellency of this way, 
by sight of the glory of the wisdom, power, grace, 
love, and goodness of God in it, so as to be satis- 
fied with it as the best, the only way of coming 
unto God, with a renunciation of all other ways 
and means unto that end, will at all times evi- 
dence its nature and sincerity. John vi. 68, 69. 
Phil.nu 3. Dr. Owen. 

276. Faith embraceth the knowledge of the 
mystery of God and Christ in the light of grace ; 
the truth of which mystery the believer acknow- 
ledged with full consent of mind on the authority 
of the itistWmy of God ; and not only so, but he 
loveth the truth, rejoiceth in it, a^a s i 
God, and most earnestly desires communion with 
Christ, that those things which are true in Christ 
may be true also to him for salvation : wherefore, 
when Christ is offered to him by the word and 
spirit, he receiveth Him with the greatest willing- 
ness of mind, he leans upon Him, he rests upon 
Him, and gives up himself wholly to Him ; which 
being done, he now glorieth that He is his, and in 
Him most pleasantly delighteth, resting under the 
shadow of the Tree of life, and satiating himself 
with his most sweet fruits. This is the faith of 
God's elect, the invaluable gift, the bond of our 
union with Christ, the heavenly ladder, the key of 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 117 

the ark of the covenant, by which are unlocked 
the treasures thereof, the never-ceasing fountain 
of a holy, happy, quiet life. Heb. xi. 

Mr. Herm. Witsius. 

277. The soul that is under the conduct of faith 
is not capable of any one desire that any thing 
were otherwise than it is, in the will of God con- 
cerning our holiness and obedience, no more than 
it can desire that God should not be what He is. 
Ps. xxx. 4. cxix. 128. Dr. Owen. 

278. The gospel doth these two things, viz. It 
sets before us our lost undone condition by na- 
ture, and shews us the remedy in Christ ; always 
offering mercy in Christ to all whom God calls to 
repentance : it is inconsistent with the goodness 
and wisdom of God to do otherwise: evangelical 
repentance must be from evangelical motives. 
This offer of grace and pardon in Christ must be 
proposed to our hearers ; and, when proposed, it 
must be believed in some degree of savino- faith 
before a sinner can entertain one serious thought 
of evangelical repentance. This offer of mercy 
received by faith implies a secret hope of pardon, 
which I conceive is the first saving work upon the 
soul. Faith, being thus wrought, causes a look- 
ing unto Christ only for salvation, and a secret 
reliance upon Him for salvation : and such a faith, 



118 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

wrought in never so low a degree, I take to be 
true, saving, justifying faith. This faith includes 
in it the seeds of all other graces, which spring 
up under the influences of faith according to the 
degree of it. This faith works by love, and causes 
true evangelical repentance, which, though it be 
no cause of our justification, yet it is always an 
effect of justifying faith, found in all who are 
justified. Jer.xxxi. 19. Luke xix. 8. 

Mr. Tho. Cole. 

279. Faith doth engraft a man, who is by na- 
ture a wild olive-branch, into Christ, as into the 
natural olive, and fetcheth sap from the root 
Christ, and thereby makes the tree bring forth 
fruit in its kind ; yea, faith fetcheth a super- 
natural efficacy from the death and life of Christ, 
by virtue whereof it metamorphoseth the heart of 
a believer, and createth and infuseth into him new 
principles of action : so that what a treasure of all 
graces Christ hath stored up in Him, faith draineth 
and draweth them out to the use of a believer ; 
being as a conduit-cock, that watereth all the 
herbs in the garden ; yea, faith doth apply the 
blood of Christ to a believer's heart, and the blood 
of Christ hath in it not only a power to wash from 
the guilt of sin, but to cleanse and purge likewise 
from the power and stain of sin. And therefore, 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 



119 



saith godly Hooker, if you would have grace, you 
must first of all get faith, and that will bring all 
the rest. Let faith go to Christ, and there is 
meekness, patience, humility, and wisdom, and 
faith will fetch all them to the soul : therefore, 
saith he, you must not look for sanctification till 
you come to Christ in vocation. Johnxv. 4, 5. 
Phil. iv. 13. Mark. Mod. Divin. 

280. True, saving, justifying faith carries the 
soul through all difficulties, discouragements, and 
natural impossibilities, to Jesus Christ. Rom. iv. 
19. Mr. Bridge. 

281. But it remains that we inquire how faith 
justifies. Certainly not in that sense, as though 
God graciously accepts the act of faith, and new 
evangelical obedience proceedeth from faith, in 
the room of that perfect obedience which, accord- 
ing to the strictness of the law, we ought to have : 
for this were to make void the whole gospel. In 
the room of perfect obedience, which the law re- 
quires to justification, the gospel hath not substi- 
tuted our faith, but the obedience of Christ, by 
which the righteousness of the law is fulfilled : 
and it is false, that faith and our obedience are 
one and the same thing. I confess, faith is a vir- 
tue commanded by the law of God, and that the 
believer, so far as he believes, does obey God. 



120 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

I confess again, no faith is to be accounted true 
and living which is not big with good works. 
But yet faith is one thing, and obedience flowing 
from faith quite another thing, especially in the 
business of justification, of which we treat, for 
Paul always contra-distinguisheth all manner of 
works from faith. Lastly, neither the truth nor 
righteousness of God suffers, that our faith and 
obedience, which are imperfect, should be ad- 
mitted as perfect : for it is the will of God, that 
the righteousness of the law should be fulfilled in 
our justification, not that any thing should dero- 
gate from it. Gal. iii. 10. 

Mr. Herm. Witsius, 

282. Nothing can avail in the business of justi- 
fication unless it be plainly perfect, and in all 
things answers to the law of God. For in justi- 
fication there is a declaration of the righteousness 
of God, Rom. iii. 25, 26. For that requires that 
the righteousness of the law be fulfilled, Rom. 
viii. 4. And the righteousness of the law cannot 
be fulfilled but by a perfect obedience. This no 
man can challenge to himself but a vain boaster 
and a liar : from whence we conclude, that no 
sinner can be justified by any act of his own, 
Rom. iii. 20. The apostle rests upon this axiom, 
That the righteousness which will be of any avail 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 121 

before the tribunal of God must in all points be 
perfect : but, seeing no works of any man are so, 
he concludes, that no works of any sort can con- 
fer any thing to justification. The apostle, with- 
out doubt, excludes all those works on which 
they who endeavour to establish their own righte- 
ousness do commonly rest : and of those, it is not 
credible that there hath been any one who through 
the whole course of their lives will say, that they 
have kept themselves undefiled with the least spot 
or stain of sin. Eccles. vii. 20, 

Mr. Herm. Witsius. 

283. Justification is a judicial act of God, but 
free, whereby an elect believing sinner is absolved 
from the guilt of his sins, and a right adjudged to 
him of eternal life, for and because of the obe- 
dience of Christ, received by faith. Rom, v. 1. 

Idem. 

284. The lowest true faith will do its work 
safely, though not so sweetly : true faith, in the 
lowest degree, gives the soul a share in the first 
resurrection : it is of the vital principle which we 
receive when we are quickened. Now be it never 
so weak a life we have, yet it is a life that shall 
never fail; it is of the seed of God which abideth, 
incorruptible seed that dieth not. A believer is 
spirit, is quickened from the dead, be he never so 

G 



122 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

young, never so sick, never so weak, he is still 
alive, and the second death shall have no power 
over him. A little faith gives a whole Christ: he 
that hath the lowest faith hath as true an interest 
in the righteousness of Christ as the most stedfast 
believer. Others may be more holy than he, but 
not one in the world more righteousness than he ; 
for he is righteous with the righteousness of 
Christ. He cannot but be low in sanctification ; 
for a little faith will bring forth but little or low 
obedience : if the root be weak, the fruit will not 
be great ; but he is beneath none in justification. 
The most imperfect faith will give present justi- 
fication, because it interests the soul in a present 
Christ: the lowest degree of true faith gives the 
highest completeness of righteousness. You who 
have but a weak faith, have yet a strong Christ; 
so that, though all the world should set itself 
against your little faith, it should not prevail : 
sin cannot do it, Satan cannot do it, hell cannot 
do it : though you take but weak and faint hold 
on Christ, He takes sure, strong, and unconquer- 
able hold on you. Have you not often wondered 
that this spark of heavenly fire should be kept 
alive in the midst of the sea ? It is everlasting, a 
spark that cannot be quenched, a drop of that 
fountain that can never be dried up. Jesus Christ 
takes special care of them that are weak in the 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 123 

faith ; on what account soever they are sick, and 
weak, and unable, this good Shepherd takes care 
of them: he shall rule, and they shall abide. 
Mic. v. 4. CoL ii. 10. John x. 28. Mark ix. 24. 
LukeVm. 50. D r . Owen. 

285. Christ maintains a little grace in his chil- 
dren amidst many strong corruptions and lusts : 
grace is but a little grain, and yet it lives and 
thrives ; it is an abiding seed, under continual 
influences from Christ. 1 John iii. 5. John xiv. 
19 ' Mr. Tho. Cole. 

286. By the bare word of God it is that the 
heavens continue, and the earth (without any other 
foundation) hangs in the midst of the air; there- 
fore well may the soul stay itself upon that, even 
when it hath nothing else in sight to stay itself 
upon. By his word it is that the covenant of day 
and night, and the preservation of the world from 
any farther overflowings of waters, continueth ; 
which if it should fail, yet his covenant with his 
people shall abide firm for ever ; though the whole 
frame of nature were dissolved. Heb. i 3 J er 
xxxiii.20,21. Dr.'siBs.' 

287. The almighty architect stretches out the 
north, and its whole starry train, over the empty 
space : he hangs the earth and all the aetherial 



124 



SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



globes upon nothing: yet are their foundations 
laid so sure, that they can never be moved at any 
time. No unfit representation to the sincere 
Christian of his final perseverance ; but such as 
points out the cause that effects it, and constitutes 
the pledge which ascertains it. His nature is all 
enfeebled, he is not able of himself to think a 
good thought, he has no visible safeguard, nor 
any sufficiency of his own ; and yet, whole legions 
of formidable enemies are combined to compass 
his ruin. The world lays unnumbered snares for 
his feet; the devil is incessantly urging the siege 
hy a multitude of fiery darts or wily temptations ; 
the flesh, like a perfidious inmate, under colour of 
friendship and a specious pretence of pleasure, is 
always forward to betray his integrity : but, amidst 
all these threatening circumstances of personal 
weakness and imminent danger, an invisible aid 
is his defence. I will uphold thee (says the 
blessed God) with the right hand of my righte- 
ousness. O comfortable truth ! The arm which 
fixeth the stars in their courses, and guides the 
planets in theirs, is stretched out to preserve the 
heirs of salvation. My sheep (adds the great 
Redeemer) are mine ; and they shall never perish, 
neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. 
What words are these ! And did they come from 
Him who hath all power in heaven and earth? 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 125 

And were they spoken to every unfeigned though 
feeble follower of the great Shepherd? Then 
Omnipotence itself must be vanquished before 
they can be destroyed, either by the seductions of 
fraud or the assaults of violence- If you ask 
therefore what security we have of enduring to the 
end, and continuing faithful unto death ? The 
very same that establishes the heavens, and settles 
the ordinances of the universe. Can these be 
thrown into confusion ? Then may the true be- 
liever draw back unto perdition ? Can the sun 
be dislodged from his sphere, and rush lawlessly 
through the sky ? Then, and then only, can the 
faith of God's elect be overthrown finally. Be of 
good courage, then, O my soul ; rely on those 
divine succours which are so solemnly stipulated, 
so faithfully promised. Though thy grace be 
languid as the glimmering spark— though the 

OVerflnwitXgyo £i£ /XMUllnpj-i ny,, „rj+ k 

extinction; yet, since the Great Jehovah has 
undertaken to cherish the dim principle, many 
waters cannot quench it, nor the floods drown it. 
Nay, though it were feeble as the smoking flax, 
almighty goodness stands engaged to augment 
the heat, to raise the fire, and feed the flame, till it 
beam forth a lamp of immortal glory in the hea- 
vens. Isa. xlii. 3. Song viii. 7. Isa. xli. 10. 
John x, 28. Mr. James Hervey. 



/ 



126 SELECT SENTENCES FKOM 



288. Unto the power of God is our persever- 
ance wholly attributed, 1 Pet. i. 5. Ye are kept 
(as with a garrison, as the word signifies) through 
the power of God unto salvation. And were 
there not a great and an apparent danger of mis- 
carrying, such a mighty guard would not be 
needed. There is nothing puts us into such 
danger as our corruptions that still remain in us, 
which fight against the soul, and endeavour to 
overcome and destroy us. Now then, to be kept, 
maugre all these; to have grace maintained, a 
spark of grace in the midst of a sea of corruption ; 
how doth this honour the power of God in keep- 
ing us ! How will the grace of God under the 
gospel triumph over the grace of God given Adam 
in innocency ! When Adam having his heart full 
of inherent grace, and nothing inwardly in his na- 
ture to seduce him, and the temptation that he 

ing his wife, yet he fell. When as many poor 
souls under the state of grace, that have but mites 
of grace in comparison, and worlds of corruption, 
are yet kept,, not only from the unnecessary plea- 
sures of sin in time of prosperity, but hold out 
against all the threats, all the cruelties of wicked 
persecutors in the time of persecution, which 
threatens to debar them of all the present good 
they enjoy ! And though God's people are often 

V 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 127 



foiled, yet that there should still remain a seed 
within them. This illustrates the grace of Christ 
under the gospel. For one act in Adam expelled 
all grace out of him, when yet his heart was full 
of nothing else. Were our hearts filled with grace 
perfectly at first conversion, this power would not 
be seen ; neither would the confusion of the devil 
be so great, and the victory so glorious, if all sin 
were at first conversion expelled. For by this 
means the devil in his assaults against us hath the 
more advantages, fair play, (as I may say) fair 
hopes of overcoming, having a great faction in us 
as ready to sin as he is greedy to tempt; and 
yet God carries on his own work begun, though 
slowly and by degrees, backeth and maintaineth 
a small party of grace within us to his confusion. 
That as, in God's outward government towards 
his church here on earth, He suffers a great party, 
the greater by far, to be against his church, and 
yet upholds it, and rules among the midst of his 
enemies, Ps. ex. 2. so doth He also in every par- 
ticular believer's heart. When grace shall be in 
us but as a spark, and corruptions as much smoke 
and moisture damping it ; grace but as a candle, 
and that in the socket, among huge and many 
winds ; then to bring forth judgment unto victory, 
that is a victory indeed. Isa. xlii. 3. 1 John iii. 
9. Dr. Goodwin. 



128 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



289. Constancy in gospel obedience is the 
beauty and glory of it. All that profess godliness 
keep the law now and then ; but the excellency 
of it lies in constancy. Ps. cx^x. 33, 112. Matth. 
xxiv. 13. Heb. x. 29. Mr. Tho. Cole. 

290. If God has made thee (of a great sinner) 
the object of his mercy, thou mayest be assured 
of a continuance of his love. He pardoned thee 
when thou wast an enemy ; will He leave, thee 
now thou art his friend ? He loved thee when 
thou hadst razed out in a great measure his image 
and picture, which He had set in thy soul ; will 
He hate thee now, since He has restored that 
image, and drawn it with fresh colours ? He jus- 
tified thee when thou wast ungodly ; and will He 
cast thee off since He hath been at such pains 
about thee, and written in thee a counterpart of 
his own divine nature in the work of grace ? Were 
his bowels first moved when thou hadst no grace ; 
and will they not sound louder when thou hast 
grace ? Thou hadst a rich present of his grace 
sent thee when thou couldst not pray for it ; and 
will He not much more give thee whatever is 
needful, when thou callest upon Him ? He was 
found of thee when thou didst not seek Him ; and 
will He hide Himself from thee when thou art 
enquiring after Him? God considered, before he 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 129 



began with thee, what charge thou wouldst stand 
Him in, both of merit in Christ, and of grace in 
thee ; so that the grace He hath given thee is not 
only a mercy to thee, but an obligation on Him- 
self, since his credit is engaged to complete it. 
Thou hast more unanswerable arguments to plead 
before Him than thou hadst; viz. his Son, his 
truth, his promise, his grace, his name, wherein 
before thou hadst not in the least interest. To 
what purpose hath God called thee and washed 
thee, if He did not intend to supply thee with as 
much grace as shall bring thee to glory ? Hath 
God given thee Christ, and will He detain any 
thing else? Ezek. xvi. 8. IsaAxv. 1. Matth. 
viL 7. Rom. viii. 32. Mr. Charnock. 

291. Well, Christ is in heaven, our true trea- 
sure, whither neither the thief, nor moth, nor 
canker can come. This is our happiness, that He 
keepeth our treasure ; it is out of the reach of 
devils and men : were it in our hands we would 
soon betray it. If we are set in heaven with 
Christ, Christ may as soon be pulled out of hea- 
ven as we disappointed of our inheritance. Matth. 
vi. 19, 20. John xiv. 19. Mr. Bain. 

292. A saint may be brought very low, but he 
can never fall below a promise : he may lose estate, 

g 2 



130 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



friends, and health, and much of the presence of 
God ; but, if once in covenant with God, he can 
never lose the promise : the word of the Lord 
endures for ever. There is my comfort. Ps. cxix. 
92. Mr. Tho. Cole. 

293. Faith's assurance, that in the Lord Jeho- 
vah there is everlasting strength, even while we 
have not the experience of the communications of 
it, is a cordial against fainting. Isa. xxvi. 4. 

Mr. Halyburton, 

294. Perturbations, sorrows, dread, dejections, 
fears, are no duty unto any ; only they are such 
things as sometimes ensue, or are immited into 
the mind, upon that which is adjuty indispensable, 
namely, the conviction of sin. They belong not 
to the precept of the law, but to its curse ; they 
are no part of what is required of us, but of what 
is inflicted on us. There is a gospel sorrow and 
humiliation after believing that is a duty, that is 
ooth commanded and hath promises annexed to 
it ; but this legal sorrow is an effect of the curse 
of the law, not of its command. And God is 
pleased to exercise a prerogative and sovereignty 
in this whole matter, and deals with the souls of 
men in an unspeakable variety. Some he leads 
by the gates of death and hell to rest in his love, 



: EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 131 

like the people of old, through the waste and how- 
ling wilderness into Canaan; and the paths of 
others He makes plain and easy to them; some 
walk or wander long in darkness ; in the souls of 
others Christ is formed in the first gracious visi- 
tation. 2 Cor. vii. 9, 10. Dr. Owen. 

295. Men may love their friends more than 
they can help them ; but the loving-kindness of 
God is attended with a power as infinite as itself. 
Ps. cxlvi. 5. Jer. xxxii. 27. Mr. Charnock. 

296. The believing soul, knowing, acknowledg- 
ing, and loving the truths of salvation, cannot but 
wish that all those things which are true in Christ 
may be true also to him, and that he may be sanc- 
tified and blessed according to and by those 
truths ; and sincerely desires that he, being by sin 
alienated from the life of God, may again by free 
justification, and in and through sanctification, be 
sealed up to the glory of God. This is the hunger 
and thirst after righteousness mentioned, Matth. 
v. 6. And, I pray, what reason can there be, why 
he who believes and perceives in himself that he 
is most miserable, and is most fully persuaded 
that by nothing, neither in heaven nor in earth, 
he can be freed from his misery ; who also sees 
there is a fulness of salvation in Christ, and is 



132 



SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



certain he can never obtain salvation unless he be 
united to Christ; who from his very soul loves the 
truth of the fulness of salvation in Christ alone 
and communion with Him^ that he, I say, should 
not seriously and ardently desire to have Christ 
dwelling in him : and this he should seek after, 
this he should press after, and with such a desire as 
can never be satisfied but by the possession of the 
thing desired, as hunger and thirst are not allayed 
but by food and drink. Phil. iii. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. 

Mr. Herm. Witsius. 

297. How strange is formality in such a business 
as prayer ! which is an address to the living God, 
one of the most solemn acts of the soul : yea, we 
may call it the most natural act of a Christian, 
like the breathing of the child after the breast ! 
Alas ! it is sad that many times this seems rather 
a piece of invention than a matter of earnest with 
the Lord ; not so much the breathing of the soul 
after Him, as the expressing what should be our 
desires! O to what class can such a piece of 
atheism be reduced as appears in our nearest ap- 
proaches to God ! Should we look on prayer as 
a duty, and not consider it as a singular enjoy- 
ment also, without which this earth would have a 
near appearance of hell, if we could not thus 
solace the soul in God, and get a vent under its 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 133 



greatest pressures. O prayer ! what thought 
should we have of it if the truth thereof were more 
believed ! I think that man who is sure of the 
being and faithfulness of God, and of the reality 
of prayer, needs not to be solicitous with what 
face the world looks on him, when thus his great 
interest and encouragement are secure, and a well 
is at hand that can answer all his complaints. Ps. 
xvii. 6. xxxiv. 5, 6. Mr. Fleming. 

298. Heartless, lifeless, wordy prayer, the fruit 
of convictions and gifts, or of custom and out- 
ward occasions, however multiplied, and whatever 
devotion they seem to be accompanied withal, will 
never engage spiritual affections to them. Ps. 
xvii. 1. Hos. vii. 14. Dr. Owen. 

299. It is an astonishing thing to see, how, 
under frequency of prayer and a seeming fervency 
therein, many of us are at a stand as to visible 
thriving in fruits of grace, and it is to be feared 
without any increase of strength in the root of it : 
and, which is yet more astonishable, men abide 
in the duty of prayer, and that in constancy, in 
their families and otherwise, and yet live in known 
sins : and the fault and guilt is wholly their own, 
who have affected a consistency between a way in 
sinning and a course in praying : and it ariseth 
from hence, that they have never laboured to fill 



134 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

up their requests with grace. No man was ever 
absolutely prevailed on by sin, who prayed for de- 
liverance according to the mind of God. Every 
praying man that perisheth was an hypocrite ; 
the faithfulness of God in his promises will not 
allow us to judge otherwise, Ps. 1. 15. xci. 15. 
For men to be earnest in prayer and thriftless in 
grace, is a certain indication of prevalent corrup- 
tions, and want of being spiritually-minded in 
prayer itself. He who prays as he ought will en- 
deavour to live as he prays. To pray earnestly 
and live carelessly, is to proclaim that a man is 
not spiritually-minded in his prayer. "We may 
hear prayers sometimes that openly discover them- 
selves to spiritual sense to be the labour of the 
brain by the help of gifts, in memory and inven- 
tion, without any evidence of any mixture of hu- 
mility, reverence, or godly fear, without any act- 
ing of faith and love : they flow as wine, yet smell 
and taste of the unsavoury cask from whence they 
proceed. Ezek. xx. 16. Prov. xv. 8. 

Dr. Owen. 

300. It were to be wished this great means of 
prayer, yet left to the church, were with more 
singleness and fervour improved, both by the 
Christian alone and in converse with others. 
This is well known in the most dark and dismal 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 135 

times of her condition, what marvellous help it 
hath brought at a choke, when it hath seemed in 
some manner the last effort of the church, and all 
other things gone. O a spirit of prayer ! what re- 
markable advantage hath followed upon this ! 
Thus hath the meanest of the saints access to do 
a great piece of service, even to the church uni- 
versal, and the recovery again of the power of god- 
liness, that is now so far gone. Acts xii. 5, 6, 11. 
Esth. iv. 16. ha. Ixii. 6, 7. Mr. Fleming. 

301. If you know the principles of prayer, and 
have a lively sense of your necessities, and hearty 
desire of God's grace and mercy, you will be able 
to pray without forms, and your affections will 
bring forth words out of the fulness of your heart ; 
and you will not be over solicitous and timorous 
about words ; for, doubtless, the Spirit, who is the 
help to us in speaking to men, will also much 
more help us to speak to God, if we desire it: and 
God regards not eloquent words, nor artificial 
composure ; neither need we regard it in private 
prayer. If you limit yourselves to forms, you will 
thereby grow formal, and limit the Spirit. 1 Cor. 
i. 5. Mark xiii. 11. Luke xii. 12. 

Mr. Marshal. 



136 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

302. The richest saint must be (and is) a hum- 
ble beggar at grace's door all his days ; and Christ 
is the Lord of the house, and the dispenser of the 
alms : and as the alms is too good not to be pa- 
tiently waited for, so the Lord is too good and too 
great to be quarrelled with ; and never did a be- 
liever get any good by complaining of Him. 
Complain to Him and pray and ask largely, but 
still with faith and patience. Knock at his door, 
but stay; and bless Him that ever He gave you 
any crumbs of his grace : mix your prayers for 
new wanted grace with praises for his old dis- 
pensed grace. Christ loveth you, and hath proved 
it. Believe it, and bless Him for it, and wait for 
his renewing his love to you ; and in due time 
you will find that He will not only answer but 
out-do your desires to Him, and all your expecta- 
sions from Him, Gen. xlix.18. Ps. xxvii. 14. Isa. 
xl. 31. xlix. 23. Mr. Trail. 

303. Do not say you cannot pray because you 
cannot speak much, or well, or long. Praying is 
wrestling with God ; the heart is the wrestler ; 
holy faith is the strength of it : if by means of 
this strength thy heart be a good wrestler, though 
thou art ever so tongue-tied, thou wilt be a pre- 
vailer. Rhetoric goes for little in the heavenly 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 137 

court, but sincere groans have a kind of omni- 
potency. Neh. ii. 4. Isa. xxxviii. 14. 

Mr. Dan. Burgess. 

304. Prayer is chiefly a heart work : God 
heareth the heart without the mouth, but never 
heareth the mouth acceptably without the heart. 
Your prayer is odious hypocrisy, mocking God, 
and taking his name in vain, when you utter peti- 
tions for the coming of his kingdom and the doing 
his will, and yet hate godliness in your heart. 
This is lying unto God, and flattering Him with 
your lips ; but no true prayer ; and so God takes 
it. 1 Sam. i. 13. Ps. xxvii. 8. lxxviii. 36. 

Mr. Marshal. 

305. To pray in the name of Christ is to pray 
in the faith of his name : we may pray with the 
name of Christ in our mouths, and yet not pray in 
his name, unless we pray with the faith of Christ 
in our hearts. Matth. xxi. 22. John xiv. 13. 

Anonymous. 

306. Right believing is powerful praying; the 
knees, eyes, and tongue, bear the least share in 
prayer ; the whole of the work lies upon the soul, 
and particularly upon faith in the soul, which is 
indeed the life and soul of prayer. Faith can 
pray without words ; but the most elegant words, 



138 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



the phrase of angels, is not worthy to be called 
prayer without faith. Luke xi. 2. 1 Cor. xiv. 15. 

Mr. Shaw. 

_ \ 307. Our prayer should run parallel to pro- 
mises ; we should ask nothing of God but what 
we have an intimation He will do for us: our 
needs and necessities would not be sufficient ar- 
guments ; but the principal argument is the word 
of God. Finding a promise in the word, faith fixes 
there, and presseth God from it; and a believer 
so praying cannot be denied, unless God deny 
Himself. The word of God is Himself; it is his 
will : so the. soul may go with a holy boldness 
unto God; for the thing that is promised is half 
done. God may keep us in suspense awhile; 
but he expects we should live upon the word, and 
hang on it till the time of the promise comes. All 
that faith labours for is to work the soul to assur- 
ance, that God will deal with us according to his 
word. And if I can make it out that such a pro- 
mise belongs to me, I have enough to live on. 
Ps. cxix. 49, 58. Mr. Tho. Cole. 

308. When a man is assured God hath given 
him his Son, he will then easily be induced to 
believe and expect, how shall He not with Him 
give me all things? If once he looks upon God 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 



139 



as a Father, he will then easily conceive what 
Christ says, If fathers that are evil can give good 
things to their children, how much more shall your 
Father give his Spirit to them that ask Him ? 
And if He gave his Son when we did not pray to 
Him, how much more shall He with Him give us 
all things we pray for? Rom. viii. 32. Luke xi. 
13. Dr. Goodwin. 

309. Dost thou pray with all thy might? then, 
though thy might be weak in itself, and in thine 
own apprehension such, yet because it is all the 
might thou hast, and which grace hath in thee, it 
shall be accepted : for God accepteth according 
to what a man hath, and not according to what a 
man hath not. 2 Cor. viii. 12. 

Dr. Goodwin. 

310. Our whole life should speak nothing but 
thankfulness ; every condition and place we are 
in should be a witness of our thankfulness : this 
will make the times and places we live in the bet- 
ter for us. When we ourselves are monuments 
of God's mercy, it is fit we should be patterns of 
his praises, and leave monuments to others. We 
should think life is given us to do something bet- 
ter than to live in : we live, not to live ! our life is 
not the end of itself, but the praise of the Giver. 
God hath joined his glory and our happiness to- 



140 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

gether : it is fit that we should refer all that is 
good to his glory, who hath joined his glory to 
our best good in being glorified in our salvation. 
Ps, L 14. cxvi. 17. Praise is a just and due tri- 
bute for all God's blessings ; for what else do the 
best favour of God especially call for at our hands ? 
How do all creatures praise God but by our 
mouths ? It is a debt always owing, and always 
paying ; and the more we pay, the more we shall 
owe: upon the due discharge of this debt, the 
soul will find much peace. A thankful heart to 
God for his blessings is the greatest blessing of 
all. Were it not for a few gracious souls, what 
honour should God have of the rest of the un- 
thankful world ? which should stir us up the more 
to be trumpets of God's praises in the midst of 
his enemies ; because this (in some sort) hath a 
prerogative above our praising God in heaven : 
for there God hath no enemies to dishonour him. 
Ps. cxlv. 10, 11, 12. cxlviii. cl. Dr. Sibs. 

311. Then hath a man eat and drink to the glory 
of God, when confessing that he is unworthy to 
enjoy this life and the comforts of it, he praises 
the bounty of God which bestows all things 
abundantly upon him ; and principally admires 
the immense love of the Lord Jesus, who wil- 
lingly sustained the want of all things delightful, 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 



141 



and suffered Himself to have vinegar and gall given 
Him to drink, that it might be granted to those 
that are his by the divine favour to eat the fat and 
drink the sweet : when also he doth not so much 
delight in the creature and the gift as in the Crea- 
tor and Giver, tasting with his utmost delight 
how sweet the Lord is: when from his heart he 
resolves to lay out that life which by these means 
is lengthened out, and all those faculties which 
are so continually preserved, in the service of 
God who gave and preserves them : lastly, when, 
from the pleasures of this natural life, he descends 
by meditation nigh unto those incredible delights 
of the future and heavenly life, and, taking them 
in his thoughts by faith, with a grateful mind he 
sings a song of love unto God : O Lord ! if thou 
dost such great things for us in prison, what wilt 
Thou do in the palace ! Isa. lv. 2. Heb. xii. 22. 
xiii. 14, 15. Mr. Herm. Witsius. 

312. Learn to value spiritual blessings and tem- 
poral likewise, not by the things themselves, but 
by the love of God from which they came. A 
small blessing may be out of abundance of love : 
God may abound in love to thee in bestowing it, 
when the blessing in the matter of it is but little* 
What is the reason that many good souls, who 
have true grace wrought in their hearts, are sa 



142 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



very unthankful ? They look to the grace wrought 
in them, and see there is but little of that ; and 
they value all by what they find in themselves, 
by the blessing wrought ; I find but little in me, 
if any at all : and while they thus value the bless- 
ing by what they find in themselves, they prove 
unthankful unto God. Whereas, that little grace 
thou hast, that little faith, be it but as a grain of 
mustard-seed, it proceeds out of abundance of 
grace in God. God abounds infinitely in his love 
to thee, when thou hast but the least beginnings 
of grace in thee, as small at first as Nicodemus 
had. Eph. i.8. ii. 4. iii. 11. Dr. Goodwin. 

313. Let all seen enjoyments lead you to the 
unseen fountain from whence they flow. Never 
rest upon any thing you have, without you see 
God in it ; and then be sure you rest not upon 
the enjoyment, but upon that God who manifests 
himself by it ; for the enjoyment will quickly be 
gone, but the fountain will remain. Ps. lxiii. 3. 
Jer. xxxi. 3. Isa. liv. 8. Mr. Halyburton. 

314. Where grace is, there will be no eminent 
mercy gotten with much struggling, but there 
will be a particular thankful remembrance of it a 
long while after with much enlargement ; and as 
prayer abounded, so will thanksgiving abound 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 



143 



also. Great blessings, that are won with prayer, 
are worn with thankfulness : such a man will not 
ask new, but he will withal give thanks for old. 
Thankfulness, of all duties, proceeds from pure 
grace. Prayer and thanks are like the double 
motion of the lungs : the air that is sucked in by 
prayer is breathed forth again by thanks. Eph 
v. 20. Heb. xiii. 15. Ps. 1. 14. 

Dr. Goodwin. 

315. It is good to see blessings as they issue 
from grace and mercy. It much commends any 
blessing to see the love and favour of God in it, 
which is more to be valued than the blessing it- 
self. Ps. lxiii. 3. Dr. Sibs. 

316. No mercy hath been more endeared than 
what hath broken out of the thickest cloud, or 
more full and sweet than what hath come after 
much patience and continued wrestlings. Isa. 
xxxviii. 16, 20. 1 Sam. i. 10, 11, 27, 28. ii. 1 to 
10. Mr. Fleming. 

317. Faith's discovery of forgiveness in God, 
though it have no present sense of its own pecu- 
liar interest therein, is the great supportment of a 
sin-perplexed soul. Ps. cxxx. 4. 

I)r. Owen. 



144 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

318. God by afflictions brings a kind of death 
unto the world, and the pleasures of it, upon the 
desires and affections of the soul, which renders 
them unserviceable unto the remainder of defiling 
lusts and corruptions. This in some, indeed, en- 
dures but for a season, as when in sickness, wants, 
fears, distresses, losses, sorrows ; there is a great 
appearance of mortification, when yet the strength 
of sin and the vigour of carnal affections do 
speedily revive upon the least appearance' of re- 
lief. But with believers it is not so; but by all 
their chastisements they are really more and more 
delivered from the pollutions of sin, and made 
partakers of God's holiness. God doth by them 
excite, stir up, and draw forth all the graces of 
the Spirit into a constant, diligent, and vigorous 
exercise; and therein the work of cleansing the 
soul from the pollution of sin is carried on. A 
time of affliction is the especial season for the 
peculiar exercise of all grace ; for the soul can 
then no otherwise support or relieve itself : for it 
is cut short or taken off from all other comforts or 
reliefs, every sweet thing being made bitter unto 
it. It must therefore live not only by faith and 
love and delight in God, but in some sense upon 
them : for if in their exercise, support and com- 
fort be not obtained, we can have none. There- 
fore doth such a soul find it necessary to be con- 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 145 
stantly abounding in the exercise of grace, that it 
may in any measure be able to support itself 
under its troubles and sufferings. 1 Pet. i. 6 7 
Jam. i. 2, 3. ha. xxvii. 9. Dr. Owen. 

319. O what rare mercies lie often hid under 
some dark and afflicting providences, even while 
they are at our hand, and are not seen, from the 
forwardness of an embittered spirit, that will not 
let its own eyes see the advantage of such a case ; 
but as ,f they did well to be angry against God, 
will quarrel more his crossing their humour than 
observe his tenderness for promoting their real 
good, and cry against Him because He will not 
undo them ! Gen. xlii. 36. xlv. 5, 8. 

Mr. Fleming. 

320. It becomes a saint to believe the faithful- 
ness of God to him, according to his covenant, 
under all afflictions and chastisements. Grace 
will act like itself at last; and they that trust in 
the Lord shall never be ashamed. Though God 
veil h 1S grace, and give us mercies on the point of 
his sword, yet, when we pass through the fire and 
the water, He will be with us; but they need 
good eyes to see the love of God when they are 
compassed with fire and water; yet it is there- 
and a gracious soul hath some discerning of this 
promise in the midst of them. You shall not 



146 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 
perish, because I will be with you. So how boldly 
may a saintenter into these fires, and walk through 
the valley of the shadow of death, and fear no 
evil ! God cannot hide his face, his love, from 
such a faith. A tried faith, that will not let God 
go, nor entertain an unbelieving thought of Him, 
is a precious faith. God will certainly turn back 
on such a soul, and manifest his love at last in a 
glorious manner. Ps. xxiii.4. xxvii. 1, 3. cxix. 
75. Isa.xliii.2. Mr. Tho. Cole. 

321. Afflictions are very overwhelming some- 
times, and would indeed quite sink us, if the word 
of God did not speak comfort to us in and under 
them. It is a sign of a spiritual frame, when, in 
the midst of troubles and afflictions, we can find 
present delight in the word of God : but when 
afflictions come, and the word administers no 
comfort, -it is a sign we are in a dead, unbelieving 
frame, and no way affected with the report the 
gospel makes of future happiness. Ps. cxix. 92. 

Idem. 

322. Sin hath a life, and that such a life as 
whereby it not only lives, but rules and reigns in 
all who are not born of God. By the entrance of 
grace into the soul it loseth its dominion, but not 
its being; its rule, but not its life. The utter 
ruin, destruction, and gradual annihilation of all 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 147 

the remainders of this cursed life of sin is our de- 
sign and aim in this duty, which is therefore 
called mortification. The design of this duty, 
wherever it is in sincerity, is to leave sin neither 
operation, life, nor being. And this concerns us 
in all that we are and do : in our duties, in our 
callings, in our conversation with others, in our 
retirements, in the frames of our spirits, in our 
straits, in our mercies, in the use of our enjoy- 
ments, in our temptations. If we are negligent 
unto any occasion, we shall suffer by it. This is 
our enemy, and this is the war we are engaged 
in; every mistake, every neglect, is perilous. 
Rom. viii. 6 — 13. Dr. Owen. 

323. Sorrow for sin and repentance are by no 
means to be looked on as separate from the blood 
and redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ, but as 
flowing from it, and ordained by God in the hands 
of the Mediator, who truly gives it, washes it in 
his own blood, and as the great High-priest offers 
it with the incense, ointment, and rich perfumes 
of his own holiness, righteousness, and purity. 
He promotes, advances, and gives grace, and is 
continually renewing it. Rev. viii. 3, 4. How 
adorable is that grace of God in Jesus Christ, 
which hath not only given us the doctrine of re- 
pentance, but by his Spirit gives the very grace 



148 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



itself ! He puts no trust in our own powers of 
understanding, will, affections, natural conscience, 
reason, or morality ; but only in his own Spirit 
and grace in his Son. Nor doth He accept our 
repentance upon its worth, value, and perfection ; 
but wraps it up in the rich robes of the righteous- 
ness of the Lord Jesus Christ, and so it is plea- 
sing in his sight. So he does not lessen or dero- 
gate from the graciousness of his gospel in 
imposing such a duty, but He magnifies it by giv- 
ing so high and admirable a grace and divine 
power within us. Ps. Ixxx. 3. Job xv. 15. Jer. 
xxxi. 18, 19. Mr. Tho. Beverly. 

324. Humility, how acceptable is it to God ! 
how yielding to his command ! God gives grace to 
it. God looks off from heaven and earth to look to 
that man who is of a contrite spirit, and trembles 
at his word. He that is the high and lofty One, 
who dwells in the high and holy place, and inha- 
bits eternity, will dwell also with the humble 
spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, ha. lvii. 
15. This sorrow hides pride from man, and so 
fits it to all holy returns to God by repentance. 
It withdraws man from his purpose; it changes 
the purpose of man. That which was the full 
purpose of the heart before was to cleave to sin 
and the world ; now the heart cleaves to God with 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C, 149 

its full purpose. This humble broken spirit is the 
sacrifice of God, the sacrifice He will not despise, 
because it is ready to yield up itself in all obe- 
dience to Him, But the sorrow of the world, not 
eying God, nor having regard to Him, never 
changes the heart nor life into obedience unto 
Him, and so leaves a man in the same lost undone 
state, and so becomes desperate sorrow and an- 
guish, as the scripture calls it, Isa. viii. 22. and 
may be most fitly described by Jer. vi. 28, 29, 30. 
" They are all grievous revolters ; they are brass 
and iron ; they are all corrupters ; the bellows are 
burnt, the lead is consumed of the fire, the founder 
melteth in vain ; for the evil of the heart is not 
pulled away: reprobate silver shall men call them, 
because the Lord hath rejected them." When 
the Lord therefore, as the great Founder, casteth 
men as into the furnace of sorrow, and they are 
not purged from evil, the melting is in vain, and 
they are therefore rejected of God as reprobate 
silver. When sorrow and affliction, which are as 
the chirurgery or blood-letting of the gracious 
hand of Gob, effect nothing of good, it is as the 
corruption of the whole mass of blood, and is 
certainly unto death. Isa. hill lxv. 14. Lam. 
- "i- 65. Mr. Beverly. 



325. In true repentance the soul makes full 



150 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



and firm resolutions of new obedience and amend- 
ment of life, and such as are ready to issue out 
into action, and this through the grace, power, 
and assistance of the divine Spirit. Luke xix. 8. 
Jobxxxiv. 31, 32. Idem. 

326. No man can turn to God except he be 
first turned of God ; and after he is turned he re- 
pents ; so Ephraim saith, After I was converted 
I repented, Jer. xxxi. 1 9. The truth is, A re- 
pentant sinner first believes that God will do that 
which He promiseth, namely, pardon his sins and 
take away his iniquity; then he resteth on the 
hope of it, and from that and for it he leaves sin, 
and will forsake his old course, because it is dis- 
pleasing unto God, and will do that which is plea- 
sing and acceptable to Him. So that, first of all, 
God's favour is apprehended, and remission of 
sins believed ; then, upon that, cometh alteration 
of life and conversation. Luke xix. 8. Rom. vi. 
21. Marr. Mod. Divin. 

327, There is a most excellent suitableness and 
congruity betwixt repentance and remission of 
sins, without prejudice to the freedom of God's 
grace, since God gives repentance as well as re- 
quires it, and makes his people what He would 
have them to be. Acts iii. 19. Ezek. xvi. 60 to 
63. xxxvi. 26. Mr. Fleming. 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 151 

328. The principal and adequate reason of ali 
divine worship, and that which makes it such, is 
what God is in Himself. Because He is, viz. an 
infinitely glorious, good, wise, holy, powerful, 
righteous, self-subsisting, self-sufficient, all-suffi- 
cient Being, the Fountain, Cause, and Author of 
life and being to all things, and of all that is good 
in every kind, the First Cause, Last End, and ab- 
solutely sovereign Lord of all, the Rest and all- 
satisfactory Reward of all other beings; there- 
fore is He by us to be adored and worshipped with 
divine and religious worship : hence are we in 
our hearts, minds, and souls, to admire, adore, 
and love Him ; his praises are we to celebrate, 
Him to trust and fear, and so to resign ourselves 
and all our concernments unto his will and dis- 
posal ; to regard Him with all the acts of our wills 
and persons, answerably to the holy properties of 
his nature. This it is to glorify Him as God. 
Ps. cxiii. cxlv. cxlvii. Rev. iv. 11. v. 13. xv. 3, 4. 

Dr. Owen. 

329. This seems to be little considered in such 
inquiries some have about their inward state, and 
whether they believe or not, how it is much 
greater to believe the truth in general than any 
personal application thereof can be in their case : 
for which the apostle clearly reasons in Rom, viii. 



152 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

32. He that spared not his own Son, how will 
He not with Him give us all things? For if we 
be assured of that in which the greatest difficulty 
of faith lies, must it not by clear consequence fol- 
low, that what concerns our interest is but as 
straining at a gnat, when such a thing is once 
swallowed : and where a Christian hath got this 
length, to believe the testimony of God is such 
whereon with greatest security he can repose his 
soul, personal evidences cannot then stay behind, 
if there be a serious endeavour in their essays 
after holiness. For the greater wonder here is to 
believe the truth of the gospel, that He is able to 
save to the utmost all who come unto Him, more 
than his saving me : and it may be too obvious, 
that the cause whence the last is obstructed, is, 
so small an establishment in the first. 1 Tim. i. 
15. Isa. liii. 1. Ps. cxvi. 10. John vi. 69. 

Mr. Fleming. 

330. The going forth of the soul by faith unto 
Christ as the Anointed of the Lord, sent and 
sealed by the Father to undertake the great work 
of man's redemption, is a sure evidence of rege- 
neration. Matth. xvi. 17. Mr. Tho. Cole. 



331. They are few who find it a great business 
to be eternally saved, and have their souls kept 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 153 

under such a weight $ to whom the thoughts of a 
heaven or hell are brought near as undoubted 
realities, betwixt which there is no middle state 
after death ; but know they must be inhabitants 
of one or the other. For if such a deep impres- 
sion as this were on men's souls, could they pos- 
sibly be so unconcerned in their being sure of the 
foundation whereon they have so great a venture. 
Such, indeed, are a rare sight in this age, whose 
working out their salvation is with fear and trem- 
bling. And most seem so far to be lost in a 
throng of other things, that this greatest question 
which can occur in all their life [if they be born 
again] is laid aside till they are ready to die. 
O! hath our light thus put us out of seriousness, 
and giving all diligence, which is so indispensably 
required of those who mind heaven? Will gifts 
and a high repute in the church, or a fair shew 
in the flesh, be a sure evidence to cause rejoicing 
when once it comes to die ? This is a sad sub- 
ject; and I must say, if the characters of godli- 
ness the scripture hath laid down were seriously 
pondered, there never was an age wherein more 
professors are like to come short of heaven, and 
be found in a fundamental delusion about their 
state, than this is. Eccl. xi. 3. Mark viii. 36. 

Mr. Fleming. 

h 2 



154 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



332. There is a profession of a special kind, 
which in its own nature is exposed to reproach in 
the world: they that will live godly in Christ 
Jesus shall suffer persecution, 1 Tim. iii. 12. 
There is a being in Christ by profession, and not 
living godly ; for there are branches in the Vine 
by profession that bring forth no fruit; men that 
have a profession whereby they do not trouble the 
world, and for which the world will not trouble 
them ; that can go that length in compliance with 
the world and the ways of it, as that they shall 
not have one drop of the Spirit of the witness of 
Christ, which torments the men of the earth. 
But they that will live godly, that is, engage in a 
profession that shall on all occasions and in all 
instances manifest the power of it, they shall 
suffer persecution. We see many every day keep 
up a profession, but such a profession as will not 
provoke the world. Now this is to be ashamed 
of the gospel, to be ashamed of the power and 
glory of it, to be ashamed of the Author of it. 
No man can put Jesus Christ to greater shame 
than by professing the gospel without shewing 
the power of it, Phil iii. 18. Rev. xi. 10. There 
can be no more vile and sordid hypocrisy, than 
for any to pretend unto inward habitual sancti- 
fication, while their lives are barren in the fruits 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 155 

of righteousness and obedience, Titus i. 16. 
Matth. xxiii. 14. Dr. Owen. 

333. Of all dangers in profession, let professors 
take heed of this, namely, of a customary, tradi- 
ditional, or doctrinal owning such truths as ought 
to have their accomplishment in themselves, 
while they have no experience of the reality and 
efficacy of them. This is plainly to have a form 
of godliness, and to deny the power of it. And 
of this sort of men do we often see many turning 
atheists, scoffers, and open apostates. Hence it 
is that the knowledge and profession of the truth 
with many is so fruitless, inefficacious, and use- 
less. It is not known, it is not understood, nor 
believed, in its relation unto Christ, on which ac- 
count alone it conveys either life or power unto 
the soul. Men profess they know the truth, but 
they know it not in its proper order, harmony, 
and use : it leads them not unto Christ, it brings 
not Christ unto them, and so is lifeless and use- 
less. Hence often none are more estranged from 
the life of God than such who have much no- 
tional knowledge of the doctrines of the scripture : 
for they are all of them useless, and subject to 
be abused, if they are not improved to form Christ 
in the soul, and transform the whole person into 



156 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

his likeness and image. This they will not effect, 
where their relation unto Him is not understood ; 
where they are not received and learned as a 
revelation of Him, with the mystery of the wis- 
dom and will of God in Him. For whereas, He 
is our life, and in our living unto God we do not 
so much live as He liveth in us, and the life we 
lead in the flesh is by the faith of Him ; so that 
we have neither principle nor power of spiritual 
life, but in, by, and from Him ; whatever know- 
ledge we have of the truth, if it do not effect an 
union between Him and our souls, it will be life- 
less in us, and unprofitable to us. It is learning 
the truth as it is in Jesus, which alone reneweth 
the image of God in us, Eph. iv. 21, 22, 23, 24. 
Where it is otherwise, where men have notions of 
evangelical truths, but know not Christ in them, 
whatever they profess, when they come really to 
examine themselves they will find them of no use 
unto them, but that all things between God 
and their souls are stated on natural light and 
common presumptions. Acts yiii. 21. Tit. i. 16. 

Dr. Owen. 

334. Acts flowing from a living principle within 
do carry their own evidence along with them, 
giving a pleasing sensation of their truth and 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 157 

reality, as the genuine off-spring of the heart, 
which nothing that is forced or counterfeit can 
do. Rom. yin. 16. 2 Cor. v. 14, 15. 

Mr. Tho. Cole. 

335. To believe in Christ for redemption, for 
justification, for sanctification, is but one half of 
the duty of faith. It respects Christ only as He 
died and suffered for us, as He made atonement 
for pur sins, peace with God and reconciliation 
for us, as his righteousness is imputed to us unto 
justification. Unto these ends He is indeed first- 
ly and principally proposed unto us in the gospel ; 
and with respect unto them we are exhorted to 
receive Him and to believe in Him. But this is 
not all that is required of us. Christ in the gospel 
is proposed unto us as our pattern and example 
of holiness. And as it is a cursed imagination 
that this was the whole end of his life and death, 
namely, to exemplify and confirm the doctrine of 
holiness which He preached; so to neglect his 
being our example in considering Him by faith 
unto that end, and labouring after conformity to 
Him, is evil and pernicious. Wherefore let us be 
much in contemplation of what He was, what He 
did, how in all instances of duties and trials He 
carried himself, until an image or idea of his per- 
fect holiness is implanted in our minds, and we 



158 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

are made like unto Him thereby. 1 Pet. ii. 21. 

1 John iv. 11. Heb. xii. 3. John xiii. 14. 

Dr. Owen. 

336. Believers are righteous men; and it is 
their justice to be glad, and triumph in their vic- 
tory over death. Justice withholds not what is 
due, when it is in the power of its hand to pay ; 
to repay vengeance to evil-doers, and praise to 
them that do well. Death and its accomplices, 
the law, sin, Satan, and hell, are enemies that have 
tragically used believers, made them to bear God 
knows what, shamed them, and tempted them to 
curse the day of their birth, held them subject to 
bondage through fear all the time they lay under 
their power. An holy revenge is now owing to 
sin and to Satan ; and now that through Christ 
they are taken out of those cruel hands, they are 
able to pay it ; able to expose them and to put 
them to open shame ; to shew abroad how they 
themselves have been used by one mightier than 
they, how the law, as damning, is abolished ; sin 
is condemned, Satan's head is bruised, death is 
plagued, the grave is destroyed, and hell hath its 
mouth stopped. Hos. xiii. 14. Rom. vi. 6. vii. 
4, 24, 25. viii. 3. 1 Cor. xv. 54, 57. 

Mr. Dan. Burgess. 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 159 



337. That submission to the sovereign will and 
pleasure of God, in the disposal of all our con- 
cerns in this world, is an excellent fruit of faith, 
an eminent part of holiness, or duty of obedience, 
is acknowledged. And he that cannot live in an 
actual resignation of himself and all his concerns 
unto the sovereign pleasure of God, can neither 
glorify Him in any thing, nor have one hour's 
solid peace in his own mind. This the uncertain- 
ty of all things here below calls for. None 
knows how soon it may be his portion to be 
brought into the utmost extremity of earthly cala- 
mities. There is none so old, none so young, 
none so wise, none so rich, as thence to expect 
relief from such things. Where then shall we 
cast anchor in this condition ? whither shall we 
betake ourselves for quiet and repose ? It is no 
where to be obtained but in a resignation of our- 
selves and all our concernments into the sovereign 
pleasure of God. And what greater motive can 
we have hereunto than this? The first act of di- 
vine sovereign pleasure concerning us was the 
chusing us from all eternity unto holiness and 
happiness. This was done when we were not, 
when we had no contrivances of our own : and 
shall we not now put all our temporary con- 
cerns into the same hand? Can the same foun- 



160 SELECT SENTENCES PROM 



tain send forth sweet water and bitter ? Can the 
same sovereign pleasure of God be the free only 
cause of all our blessedness, and can it do that 
which is really evil unto us ? Our souls, our per- 
sons, were secure and blessedly provided for, as 
to grace and glory, in the sovereign will of God. 
And what a prodigious impiety is it, not to trust 
all other things in the same hand, to be disposed 
of freely and absolutely ! If we will not forego 
our interest in mere, absolute, free, sovereign 
grace for ten thousand worlds, as no believer will ; 
how ready should we be to resign up thereunto 
that little portion which we have in this world 
among perishing things? Job i. 21. Ps. xxxvii. 
3, 4, 5. Rom. viii. 32. Dr. Owen. 

338. It is now many years since the apostate 
angels made a question whether their will or the 
will of their Creator should be done : and since 
that time froward man hath always in that same 
suit compeered to plead with them against God 
in daily repining against his will. But the Lord, 
being both Party and Judge, hath obtained a de- 
cree, and saith, Isa. xlvi. 10, My counsel shall 
stand, and I will do all my pleasure. It is then 
best for us, in the obedience of faith and in an 
holy, submission, to give that to God which the 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 161 

law of his almighty and just power will have of 
us. Ps.xxxiii.il. Rom. ix. 20. 

Mr. RUTHERFOORD, 

339. What doth the frequent discouragement 
and uncomfortable walk of the people of God 
speak forth ? Doth it not witness how little they 
are in earnest with this great truth of the scrip- 
ture's accomplishment, or their little establish- 
ment therein ? What meaneth these distrustful 
fears and perplexed complaints, if their eyes be 
but opened to know they have such a well as the 
promise of God at their hand? How is it that 
the smallest straits are so puzzling and ready to 
outwit them, that they so usually stumble at the 
cross ? and as things from without do appeal*, the 
encouragement made to ebb and flow ? Is not 
here the cause, that they stagger at the promise, 
while probabilities in some visible way do not go 
along for its performance ? It is truly easy to 
have some sweet notions of faith at a distance : 
but when the trial comes near, upon such a close 
approach, that there is no other way than to put 
the whole stress of their particular interest on the 
word, and on that alone ; many are then at a 
stand, because they are not thoroughly assured, 
that, though the earth should be overturned, there 
is an absolute necessity for the promise of Gob 



162 



SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



to take place. Ps. xlvi. 2, 3. Isa. liv. 10, 11. 
lv. 11. Mr. Fleming. 

340. The fulfilling that promise for direction 
which God hath given his people in the word, 
That He will guide them with his counsel, will 
order and direct their steps who do commit their 
way to Him, and teach them the way they shall 
chuse, hath been so manifest to those who have 
ever made earnest of acknowledging God in their 
way, and committing the conduct thereof to Him : 
that I shall but attest their experience, if they 
have not this testimony to give, That to trust 
God with their case, and give Him the guilding 
of their way, hath taken them much more easily 
through a plunging case than over-caring anxi- 
ety: yea, the Lord's directing their steps, and 
making things successful when they have com- 
mitted the same to Him, hath been often as sen- 
sible to them as their strait and difficulty was, 
2 Chron. xx. 12, 24. Their experience can also 
witness how over-caring anxiety hath often caused 
things to thrive worse under their care; while 
they never found a more satisfying issue in a 
particular than by a quiet, submissive dependance 
upon the Lord for the same. Prov. xxix. 25. 
Ps. xxv. 9, 14. xxxiv. 22. xxxvii. 5. lxxiii. 24. 

Idem. 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 163 



341 . He that looks not for much from the crea- 
ture can never be much deceived. He that looks 
for much from God shall be sure to have his de- 
sire answered and satisfied ; he shall never fall 
short of his expectation. 1 Pet. i. 24. 1 Cor. 
vii. 29, 39, 31. Ps. cxxv. 1. Jer. xvii. 5, 7. 

Dr. Preston. 

342. Since it is sure and undeniable that this 
earth doth hang in an empty place, though men 
see not whereon it leans and rests, O what a 
strange thing is it ! could the air bear up so vast 
and ponderous a body ? But herein is a marvel- 
lous divine power convincingly witnessed, which 
hath so established it, that it cannot be moved. 
Now is it not this very word that bears up such a 
weight? And thence with as clear ground we 
may reason for adventuring the church, with its 
weight, and every Christian's burden, whatever it 
may be, on the promise of this God, on whose 
word the great bulk of the earth doth this day 
lean ? I must say, no mathematical demonstra- 
tion does follow by a clearer evidence, than this 
consequence from such premises is undeniable. 
Isa. xlviii. 13. Job xxvi. 7. 1 Pet. v. 7. 

Mr. Fleming. 

343. How few, among the throng of professed 
protestants, know what it is to have the Bible for 



164 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



the security of the protestant interest, and thus 
quiet their souls, though all the foundations seem 
to shake, because they know the cause is cer- 
tainly God's, and He is faithful who hath pro- 
mised. Isa. li. 7, 8, &c. liv. 17. Idem. 

344. Whatever notional knowledge men may 
have of divine truths, as they are doctrinally pro- 
posed in the scripture, yet, if they know them not 
in their respect unto the person of Christ, as the 
foundation of the counsels of God ; if they dis- 
cern not how they proceed from Him and centre 
in Him, they will bring no saving, spiritual light 
unto their understandings. For all spiritual life 
and light is in Him and from Him alone. John i. 
4, 8, 12. ix. 5. Dr. Owen. 

345. The difference between believers and un- 
believers, as to knowledge, is not so much in the 
matter of their knowledge as in the manner of 
knowing. Unbelievers, some of them, may know 
more and be able to say more of God, his per- 
fections and will, than many believers ; but they 
know nothing as they ought, nothing in a right 
manner, nothing spiritually and savingly, nothing 
with a holy, heavenly light. The excellency of a 
believer is not that he hath large apprehensions of 
things, but that what he doth apprehend (which 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 165 

may, perhaps, be very little) he sees it in the light 
of the Spirit of God, in a saving, soul-transform- 
ing light. And this is that which gives us com- 
munion with God, and not prying thoughts, or 
curious raised notions. Ps. ix. 10. 

Dr. Owen. 

346. No man can set his affections on things 
here below who hath any regard to the pattern of 
Christ, or is in any measure influenced with the 
power and efficacy of his cross. My love is cru- 
cified, said an holy martyr of old. He whom his 
soul loved was so, and in Him his love to all 
things here below. Do you therefore find your 
affections ready to be engaged unto or too much 
entangled with the things of this world ; and your 
desires of inpreasing them, your hopes of keeping 
them, your fears of losing them, your love unto 
them, your delight in them, operative in your 
minds, possessing your thoughts, and influencing 
your conversation ? Turn aside a little, and by 
faith contemplate the life and death of the Son 
of God : a blessed glass will it be, where you may 
see what contemptible things they are which 
you perplex yourselves about. O that any of us 
should love or esteem the things of this world, the 
power, riches, goods, or reputation of it, who have 



166 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



had a spiritual view of them in the cross of Christ ! 
Gal v. 24. vi. 14. Col. iii. 1. Idem. 

347. Outward things did never yield less than 
when we press them most ; and when we are eager 
in the pursuit of the world, and satisfaction there, 
our spirits are hurried with many perturbations : 
so that we must say, That which keepeth from 
enjoying God doth also hinder the comfortable 
enjoyment of ourselves. 1 Tim. vi. 9, 10, 11. 

Mr. Fleming. 

348. It is a thing to be lamented, that a Chris- 
tian born from heaven, having the prize of his 
high calling set before him, and matters of that 
weight and excellency to exercise his heart upon, 
should be taken up with trifles, and fill both his 
head and heart with vanity and nothing, as all 
earthly things will prove ere long. Yet, if many 
men's thoughts and discourses were distilled, they 
are so frothy, that they would hardly yield one 
drop of true comfort. Isa.lv. 2. 2 Cor. iv. 18. 
Col. iii. 1, 2, 3. Dr. Sibs. 

349. The more we cast the thoughts and love 
of the world out of our hearts, the fairer we lie for 
communication of light and knowledge from hea- 
ven, which God has promised to strangers upon 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 167 

the earth ; but if a man will be always muddling 
in the world, it is just with God to hide his com- 
mandments from him. A saint never carries it 
more like a saint than when he carrieth it most 
like a stranger in this world. Ps. cxix. 19. Heb. 
xi. 13. Mr. Tho. Cole. 

350. As Abraham dealt by his concubine's 
children, so doth God by the Ishmeals of the 
world ; He gives them portions and sends them 
away; but the inheritance He reserves for his 
Isaacs : to them He gives all that He hath, yea, 
even Himself : and what can we have more ? Gen. 
xv. 1. Ps. xvi. 5. 1 Cor. iii. 22, 23. 

Mr.ELisHA Cole. 

351. Hereby many deceive their own souls; 
goods, lands, possessions, relations, trades, with 
secular interest in them, are the things whose 
image is drawn on their minds, and whose cha- 
racters are written on their foreheads as the titles 
whereby they may be known. As believers, be- 
holding the glory of Christ in the blessed image 
of the gospel, are changed into the same image 
and likeness by the Spirit of the Lord ; so these 
persons, beholding the beauty of the world and 
the things that are in it in the cursed glass of self- 
love, are in their minds changed into the same 
image. Hence perplexing fears, vain hopes, 



168 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



empty embraces of things perishing, fruitless de- 
sires, earthly, carnal designs, cursed self-pleasing 
imaginations, feeding on and being fed by the 
love of the world and self, do abide and prevail in 
them. Eph.iv. 17, 18, 19, 20 . Rom. viii. 6. But 
we have not so learned Christ. Dr. Owen. 

352. Unless we can arrive unto a fixed judg- 
ment that all things here below are transitory and 
perishing, reaching only to the outward man, the 
body ; that the best of them have nothing that is 
truly substantial or abiding in them ; that there 
are other things, wherein we have an assured in- 
terest, that are incomparably better than they and 
above them ; it is impossible but we must spend 
our lives in fears, sorrows, and distractions. 2 Cor. 
iv. 18. Col. iii. 1, % 5. Dr. Owen. 

353. Let a man but deal plainly with his own 
heart, and he shall find that, notwithstanding he 
hath many things, yet there is ever one thing 
wanting ; for indeed man's soul cannot be satis- 
fied with any creature, no, nor with a world of 
creatures. And the reason is, because the desires 
of man's soul are infinite, according to that in- 
finite goodness it once lost in losing God ; yea, 
man's soul is a spirit, and therefore cannot com- 
municate with any corporal thing; so that all 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 169 

creatures not being that infinite fulness which our 
souls have lost, and towards which they do still 
re-aspire, they cannot give it full contentment. 
Eccl. i. 7, 8. Ps. lxxiii 4 25. 

Marr. Mod. Divin. 

354. All that God hath, both Himself and the 
creatures, He is dealing and parting among the 
sons of Adam: there are none so poor, as that 
they can say in his face, He hath given them no- 
thing: but there is no small odds betwixt the 
gifts given to lawful bairns and to bastards. Ps. 
cxlv. 15, 16. cxlvi. 8, 9. Mr. Rutherfoord." 

355. Fie, fie upon this condemned and foolish 
world, that will give so little for Christ and salva- 
tion. O if there were but a free market pro- 
claimed of Christ and salvation in that day when 
the trumpet of God shall awaken the dead, how 
many buyers would be there ! God send me no 
more happiness but that which the blind world 
(to their eternal woe) letteth slip through their 
fingers! Prov. i. 24 to 31. Idem. 

356. Faith makes the believer inherit sub- 
stance, and look to things that are real; while 
the rest of the unbelieving world weary them- 
selves m chasmg shadows, and feed their deluded 



170 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

eyes with the sight of vain imaginations* The 
more the believer looks at things that are not 
seen, the more reality doth he observe and find in 
them : whereas, the more he looks at things that 
are seen, the more vanity and emptyness he finds 
in them. He looks to things seen, and they mock 
him; he looks upon them, and they are not; a 
serious look at them looks them into nothing ; 
but things not seen have in them substance, 
reality, and solidity, which he with delight be- 
holds. He looks upon things seen, and sees them 
refuse, loss, and dung : but he sees things that 
are not seen to be so excellent, that even those 
things which seem to have some glory have yet 
no glory, by reason of this glory which doth excel. 
He looks at things that are seen, and sees them 
like a vapour or airy meteor, in a continual mo- 
tion while they are, and in a little time they quite 
evanish : but things not seen, he perceives fixed, 
unchangeable, and that for ever, 2 Cor. iv. 18. 
Faith has a back look, as well as a fore look; it 
not only sees those things that are to come in 
God's revelation of them, but it also in like man- 
ner sees those things which have been of old, even 
from everlasting. And, indeed, a humbled be- 
liever could not believe the reality of any favour 
tendered unto a vile sinner (such as he knows 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 171 

himself to be) by the holy God, unless he saw it 
flowing from sovereign grace as the fountain; he 
could not believe any thing useful unto himself 
in his present condition, if it were not the product 
of wonderfully free love, that observes not the 
desert but the need of those upon whom it be- 
stows its favours. Again, he could not be per- 
suaded to believe that he shall have any unchange- 
able mercy, while he himself changes so often, 
and very often to the worse, unless he saw them 
the product of the free, sovereign, and eternal 
love of H,m who is God, and changes not: and 
this, indeed, is the true reason why the sons of 
Jacob are not consumed. Here is one sweet glass 
wherein the believer has indeed a satisfying dis- 
covery of the solidity, excellency, and eternal 
unchangeableness of those things that are not 
seen Jer. xxxi. 3. Faith looks at tilings unseen 
m their procuring cause, the death of the eternal 
Son of God, who neither by the blood of goats 
or calves, but by his own blood, entered once into 
the holy place, having obtained eternal redemp- 
tion. Here the believer, which hath faith's eyes 
sees the reality of things ; for surely the blood of 
God was not shed for nothing : „ ay , here it sees 
their glory and excellency. A wise merchant will 
not give pearls for trifles; far less the only wise 



172 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

God this precious blood for things of no or small 
value. Here, if any where, the believer may see 
them, beyond all rational contradiction, real, great, 
durable, and eternal, Rom. ix. 15. Ezek. xvi. 5, 
6. Faith sees and is satisfied about things not 
seen, by the view it gets of them, their reality, 
and their glory, in that well-ordered covenant 
which is the means of their conveyance, ha. iv. 
3. 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. Mr. Halyburton. 

357. Every man blameth the devil for his sins ; 
but the great devil, the house-devil of every man, 
that eateth and lyeth in every man's bosom, that 
idol that killeth all, is himself. O blessed are 
they that can deny themselves, and put Christ in 
the room of themselves ! O would to the Lord 
I had not a myself, but Christ ; not a my lust, but 
Christ ; not a my ease, but Christ ; not a my ho- 
nour, but Christ ! O sweet word ! Gal ii. 20. I 
live no more, but Christ liveth in me ! O if every 
one would put away himself, his own self, his own 
ease, his own pleasure, his own credit, and his own 
twenty things, his own hundred things, that he 
setteth up as idols above Christ ! Phil. iii. 7, 8, 
9, 10. 2 Cor.iv. 10. Mr. Rtjtherfoord. 

358. Seeing men cannot get the doctrine of 
God's justice blotted out of the Bible, yet it is 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 173 

such an eye-sore to them that they strive to blot 
it out of their minds ; and they ruin themselves 
by presuming on his mercy, while they are not 
careful to get a righteousness wherein they may 
stand before his justice; but say in their hearts, 
The Lord will not do good, neither will He do 
«vil. Zeph.\.\2. Mr. Boston. 

359. No man, without the light of saving faith, 
can constantly and universally approve of the re- 
velation of the will of God, as unto our holiness 
and obedience. Dr< 0wEif . 

360. When men live to themselves, and are 
satisfied that they do no hurt, though they do no 
good, are secure, selfish, wrathful, angry, peevish, 
or have their kindness confined to their relations' 
or otherwise are but little useful but in what they 
are prest unto, and therein come off with difficul- 
ty in their own minds; who esteem all lost that is 
done for others, and the greatest part of wisdom 
to be cautious, and disbelieve the necessities of 
men ; that make self and its concernments the end 
of their lives ; whatever otherwise their profession 
may be, or their diligence in religious duties, 
they do very little either represent or glorify God 
m the world. Matth. v. 16. John xiii. 35. James 
lii ' 17 - Dr. Owen. 



174 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

361. In nothing more are men subject to mis- 
takes than in the application of things to them- 
selves, and a judgement of their interest in them. 
Fear, self-love, with the prevalency of tempta- 
tions and corruptions, do all engage their powers 
to darken the lights of the mind, and to prevent 
its judgement. In no case doth the deceitfulness 
of the heart or of sin more act itself. Hence mul- 
titudes say peace to themselves, to whom God 
doth not say peace ; and some who are children 
of light do yet walk in darkness. Prov. xiii.7. 
Ik.iii. 10. xlviii.22. Idem. 

362. Mercy in God is drawn out by his will ; 
he pardoneth whom He will : I will have mercy 
on whom I will have mercy. The compassion it- 
self doth not work necessarily in God, but it 
depends on an act of his will. If God had been 
merciful to no sinner, but had damned all men 
and angels that had sinned, yet He had been as 
merciful in his nature as now He is. So that our 
salvation must be resolved into some other princi- 
ple than simply his being merciful. For had He 
not set his heart to love, had not his will been set 
upon it, not a man that sinned had ever had a 
drop of mercy from Him, though he is thus full 
and thus rich in mercy. So that, though God is 
rich in mercy, yet there must be love as the foun- 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 175 

dation. That which moved Him to be merciful 
to any, it was his love pitched upon them, and 
then, seeing them in misery, love stirs up mercy. 
His love had first singled out certain persons 
whom He meant to show mercy to, and love did 
guide tho channel which way mercy should run. 
And therefore you shall find in scripture that elec- 
tion obtains it. Jacob have I loved. And that 
is the reason why He shews mercy to any, that the 
purpose of God according to election might stand. 
Then let the love of God be the greatest thing in 
your hearts, the nearest thing to your souls of all 
else. Of all things in God, value his love, and 
seek after that. God's love is the greatest thing 
of all : it is more than all his benefits. The love 
of God is more than all his gifts ; and yet He hath 
given great things to us, and done great things for 
us. His love is the first gift, in the gift of which 
all things else are yours. The gift of his Son, it 
was a great gift to us ; but it was founded in his 
love : He so loved the world, that He gave his 
only begotten Son, John iii. 16. Though we, 
being sinners, need mercy; that is the next thing 
we want : O mercy ! mercy ! because we appre- 
hend ourselves to be in misery : but do you look 
beyond mercy ; look to love, which is a greater 
thing to you than mercy. The reason why mercy 



1?6 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

ran into your hearts, and washed you with the 
blood of Christ, is because love guided the chan- 
nel. To seek after mercy, this self-love and the 
misery thou art in will make thee do. O but 
there is something else, saith a good soul ; it is 
the love of God and the favour of God that I 
would see ; and it is not self-love will ever carry 
a man on to seek after that. And what is the 
reason that this chiefly is the pursuit of a soul 
spiritualized ? One, among others, is this, because 
grace is always the image of God's heart. Now 
this being the chief thing in God's heart, and the 
first and the highest thing, hence therefore the 
soul seeks that ultimately and chiefly. John iii. 
16. Ps. lxxviii. 68. Mai i. 2, 3. Gal. ii. 20. 

Dr. Goodwin* 

363. The flesh and Christ offer for the will, 
who shall carry it. Pleasures, profits, riches, ho- 
nours, are the great things, with liberty and ease 
from trouble, which flesh doth offer for the will. 
Yea, saith Christ, but who shall save thee from 
that wrath that is coming on thee, and which 
now thou art sensible will befal thee, for being a 
slave to thy lusts, to the flesh, to the creatures so 
long ? that wrath being infinitely more evil, than 
is that good which flesh offers thee. I offer thee 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 177 

deliverance from wrath to come. This is fair bid- 
ding for the will, that lyeth under fears of that 
wrath, if God cut asunder the thread of life. But 
if this be only privative, and you must have posi- 
tive good to fill your hungry appetite ; let flesh 
offer : flesh offers fair promises, and what it doth 
is more by promises than performances. Christ, 
who is the yea and amen of all promises, He 
offers exceeding great and precious promises, and 
will perform all to a word, as He did to Israel, 
Josh, xxiii. 14. Flesh offers pleasures: Christ 
offers redemption from fleshly pleasures ; thy soul 
shall not any more be a slave to them ; I will 
make thee free indeed ; thou shalt feel what a 
pleasure it will be to have these chains taken off; 
and to be above thy lusts; thou shalt drink of the 
river of my pleasures, even the pleasures of my 
love and grace ; stay but a-while with patience, 
and pleasures for evermore. Flesh bids ease and 
liberty from trouble : Christ bids peace in con- 
science, peace in heaven, pardon in bosom, John 
xiv. 27. Flesh bids riches : Christ bids unsearch- 
able riches. Flesh bids the love and favour of 
great persons : Christ bids the love of the Father 
and his love : and, to beat flesh quite out, saith 
God, I give thee my Self, I give thee my Christ : 
whatever flesh bids is but temporary ; what I bid 
i 2 



178 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 

is eternal. The soul, being under the work of the 
Spirit, is enlightened to see and understand these 
things, and the glory and the good of them ; and 
thus the Lord carries away the will in triumph ; 
he hath outbid the flesh. The blessed angels re- 
joice at this work ; there is joy in the presence of 
the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. 
But what hast Thou gotten, sweet Saviour, that 
Thou art so pleased in thy victory? What! I 
have gotten thy will. A huge booty, Lord, not 
worth the taking up, nor worth one thousand part 
of what Thou hast offered to win it; Thou hast 
but pulled trouble upon thy Self in getting it: 
now Thou hast a sinful, wretched, guilty, peevish, 
fro ward, polluted wretch to pardon, to cleanse, and 
to take care of; on that will try thy patience: 
small reason that Thou shouldst triumph in thy 
winnings. Well, be it so, yet my Father hath the 
glory of his mercy and grace ; I have the glory of 
my love and redemption, I see of the travel of my 
soul and am satisfied, 1^.1^.11. To eternity 
then let thy Father's grace and mercy be adored, 
thy love and redemption be admired. Luke xv. 
10 Mr. Firmin. 



364. These are the tremendous mysteries of our 
religion, which was kept secret since the world 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 179 

began, but now is made manifest, and by the 
scriptures of the prophets, according to the com- 
mandment of the everlasting God, made known 
to all nations for the obedience of faith, Rom. xvi. 
25, 26. From hence the divinity of Christianity 
openly appears. What wisdom of men or angels 
could have been able to conceive of such hidden, 
such sublime things, and at so great a distance 
from the understanding of all creatures ! What 
adorable wisdom of God, what righteousness, ho- 
liness, truth, goodness, and love of mankind, doth 
here open itself, in rinding out, in giving, in per- 
fecting, this means of our salvation ! How plea- 
singly doth conscience, pressed with the burden 
of its sins, acquiesce in such a Surety, in such an 
engagement ! Here at length observing a manner 
of our reconciliation worthy of G od and secure to 
man! Who, contemplating these things in the 
light of the Holy Spirit, would not burst forth into 
the praise of the most holy, most just, most true, 
best and greatest Deity ! O the depth of the 
riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God S 
O mysteries which the angels desire to look into S 
Glory to the Father, who hath raised up, ad- 
mitted, and given to us such a surety ! Glory to 
the Son, who, clothing Himself with our flesh, 
hath so willingly, so patiently, so constantly, 



180 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



gone through such an engagement for us ! Glory- 
to the Holy Spirit, the revealer, witness, and 
pledge of so great happiness to us ! All hail ! 
O Christ Jesus, thou true and eternal God, true 
and holy man, both at once; the properties of 
both natures preserved in the unity of thy person ? 
Thee we acknowledge, Thee we worship, to Thee 
we betake ourselves, at thy feet we throw our- 
selves, from thy hand alone we expect salvation : 
Thou the only Saviour, we would be thy peculiar 
ones, and are so by thy grace, and for ever shall 
remain so. Let the whole world of thine elect 
know Thee, acknowledge Thee, and with us adore 
Thee, and be saved by Thee ! This is the sum of 
our faith, our hope, and our prayer. Amen. Rom. 
xi. 33. Mr. Herm. Witsius. 

365. Wouldst thou know the love of God? 
measure it not by any outward thing, by wealth, 
honour, or outward prosperity ; for this is com- 
mon with infidels and reprobates, whom the Lord 
abhorreth. No, there is no outward created com- 
fort can secure us of God's favour; only the 
having Christ, and receiving Him by faith as a 
gift from the Father : this only is that which is 
the special pledge of God's favour and love. 
What is all that the wicked have, the dew of hea- 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 181 

ven, gladness of heart, sun-shine, &c. If they 
have not the righteousness of Christ to cover 
them, the life of Christ to quicken them, such 
things as eye never saw, their condition is woeful. 
Job xxvii. 8. Matth. xvi. 26. Mr. Bain. 

366. Darkness in the minds of men, ignorance 
of God, his nature, and his will, was the original 
of all evil unto the world, and yet continues so to 
be. For hereon did Satan erect his kingdom and 
throne, obtaining in his design until he bare 
himself as the God of this world, and was so es- 
teemed by the most. He exalted himself by vir- 
tue of this darkness (as he is the prince of dark- 
ness) into the place and room of God, as the 
object of the religious worship of men. For the 
things which the gentiles sacrificed they sacri- 
ficed unto devils, and not unto God, 1 Cor. x. 21. 
Ps. cvi. 37. This is the territory of Satan, yea, 
the power and sceptre of his kingdom in the 
minds of the children of disobedience. Hereby 
he maintained his dominion to this day in many 
and great nations, and with individual persons in- 
numerable. This is the spring of all wickedness 
and confusion among men themselves. Hence 
arose that flood of abominations in the old world, 
which God took away with a flood of desolation. 
Hence were the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah, 



182 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



which he revenged with fire from heaven. In 
brief, all the rage, blood, confusion, desolations, 
cruelties, oppressions, and villanies, which the 
world hath been and is filled withal, whereby the 
souls of men have been and are flooded into 
eternal destruction, have all arisen from this cor- 
rupt fountain of the ignorance of God. Prov. i. 
24,31. Dr. Owen. 

367. All that antinomianism which the ortho- 
dox preachers of free grace are falsely charged 
with lies here, because they maintain that the 
first thing a convinced sinner is to eye, in his 
turning to God, is the free grace and mercy of 
God in Christ for the pardon of sin. Evangeli- 
cal conviction leads him to a reliance upon Christ 
in some degree of saving faith for the pardon of 
all his sins, and this faith begets in him a secret 
hope of pardon, and is the spring of all after- 
sanctification, viz. of mortification of sin, of re- 
pentance, and of all new obedience. Let this be 
remembered, as the main thing we contend about, 
that we begin our religion at the grace of God, 
and do not think to ground our faith in, Christ 
upon any legal preparations or works of our own. 
Tit. iii. 5, 6. Mr. Tho. Cole. 

368. The doctrine of salvation by sincere obe- 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 183 

dience, that was invented against antinomianism, 
may well be ranked among the worst antinomian 
errors. For my part I hate it with perfect hatred, 
and count it mine enemy, as I have found it to 
be : and I have found, by some good experience, 
the truth of the lesson taught by the apostle, that 
the way to be freed from the mastery and domi- 
nion of sin is not be under the law, but under 
grace, Rom.vi. 15. 2 Cor. v. 14. 

Mr. Marshal. 

369. If the goodness of God is so admirably 
seen in the works of nature and the favours of 
providence, with what a noble superiority does it 
even triumph in the mystery of redemption ! Re- 
demption is the brightest mirror in which to con- 
template this most lovely attribute of the Deity. 
Other gifts are only as mites from the divine trea- 
sury; but redemption opens, I had almost said 
exhausts, all the stores of his glorious grace. 
Herein God commendeth his love; not only 
manifests, but renders it perfectly marvellous ; 
manifests it in so stupendous a manner, that it is 
beyond parallel, beyond thought, and above all 
blessing and praise. Ps. cvii. 2. cxi. 9. cxiii. 7, 
8. cxxxix. 17. Rom. v. 8. Eph.iii. 19. 

Mr. Hervey. 



J 84 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



370. Grace is so free, that the mercy we abuse* 
the Name we have prophaned, the Name of which 
we have deserved wrath, opens its mouth with 
pleas for us, Ezek. xxxvi. 21. His name, while it 
pleads for them, mentions their demerits, that 
grace might appear to be grace indeed, and tri- 
umph in its own sweetness. Rom. v. 20. Eph. ii. 
4,5. Mr. Charnock. 

371. The righteousness of Christ imputed to a 
believer frees him from the obligation of yielding 
obedience to be his justifying righteousness, but 
adds an infinite obligation to obedience in point 
of gratitude ; purchases and procures grace for 
enabling to obey to all the other ends thereof, 
expiates the imperfection of his personal obe- 
dience, and renders its sincerity acceptable. 
1 Pet. ii. 5. 1 Cor. vi. 20. Mr. Glascock. 

372. I have nothing to do with the devil, nei- 
ther hath he given me any disturbance all the 
time of my sickness. But, be it so, let him come, 
let him attack me, and try his strength upon me 
a poor miserable sinner ; I will not therefore de- 
spond in my mind ; for I know that I have not 
sinned against him, bat against my God : where- 
fore, following the example of the Israelites in the 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 185 

wilderness, I will show to him not the brazen ser^ 
pent indeed, but the Son of God hanging upon 
the cross ; and I will say, it is against this Person 
I have sinned, and not against thee ; to Him I 
wholly commit myself, for I believe He hath paid 
a sufficient price to God the Father for my sins. 
Wherefore be gone, O devil, and turn thy darts 
against the Seed of the woman : if you overcome 
Him, you overcome me also. Ps. lxviii. 18. Phil. 
ii. 8, 9. Heb. ii. 14. 

Mr. Solomon Gesner. 

373, Here is the grave, the wrath of God and 
devouring flames, the just punishment of sin, on 
the one side ; and here am I, a poor sinful soul^ 
on the other side : but this is my comfort, the 
covenant of grace, which is established upon so 
many sure promises, hath salved all. There is an 
act of oblivion passed in heaven : I will forgive 
their iniquities, and their sins will I remember no 
more. This is the blessed privilege of all within 
the covenant, among whom I am one. 1 Cor. xv, 
55, 56, 57. 

Mr. William Lyford. 

374. O it is sweet at all times, especially at 
such a time, to see the reconciled face of God 



186 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



through Jesus Christ, and hear the voice of peace 
through the blood of the cross. 2 Tim, i. 12. 

Mr. Flavel. 

375. O Lord God, I thank Thee that Thou 
wouldst have me to be poor and a beggar upon 
the earth : I have no house, land, possession, or 
money, to leave. Thou hast given me a wife and 
children : to Thee I return them : nourish, teach, 
and save them, as hitherto Thou hast me, O Fa- 
ther of the fatherless, and Judge of the widows ! 

0 my heavenly Father, the God and Father of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, the God of all consola- 
tions, I thank Thee that Thou hast revealed thy 
Son Jesus Christ to me, on whom I haveJbelieved, 
whom I have professed, whom I have loved, whom 

1 have celebrated ; whom the bishop of Rome and 
all the multitude of the wicked do persecute and 
reproach. I pray Thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, re- 
ceive my soul. My heavenly Father, although I 
am taken out of this life, though I must now lay 
down this body, yet I certainly know that I shall 
dwell with Thee for ever, neither can I by any be 
plucked out of thine hands. God so loved the 
world that He gave his only begotten Son, that 
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 187 

but have everlasting life. John iii. 16. x. 28. 
2 Tim, iv. 6, 7, 8. 

Dr. Martin Luther's last will and 
prayer. Ex Melch. Adam. 

376. I have more than a thousand times vowed 
to God that I would mend, but I never performed 
what I promised : for the future I will vow no 
more, because I have learned by experience that 
I cannot perform. And unless God be propitious 
to me for Christ's sake, and grant me a happy 
hour when I shall depart this life, I shall never be 
able to stand with my vows and good works, 
Tit. iii. 5, 6. 

Johannes Stauficius, a German divine. 

377. There is but one sun that giveth light 
unto the world ; there is but one righteousness, 
there is but one communion of saints. If I were 
the excellentest creature in the world, if I were as 
righteous as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (for they 
were excellent men in the world) yet we must all 
confess that we are great sinners, and that there 
is no salvation but in the righteousness of Jesus 
Christ, and we have all need of the grace of 
God. And for my part, as concerning death, I 
feel such joy of spirit, that, if I should have the 



188 SELECT SENTENCES, &C. 

sentence of life on one side, and the sentence of 
death on the other side, I had rather chuse a 
thousand times (seeing God hath appointed the 
separation) the sentence of death than the sen- 
tence of life. Phil i. 23. 

Mr. Edward Deering on his death- 
bed. 1576. 



THE END. 



Epitaphium 
Tho. Stratton, civis Lond, 
Natura et vita peccator miserrimus, 
Dei Salvatoris gratia & sanguine redemptus, 
Resurgendi certissimafide, 
Corpus hie reponi voluit ; 
Stellam illam splendidam & matutinam expectans, 
Veni Igitur Domine Jesu ! 



APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX. 



A Christian Estimate of Time. 
WE use commonly to divide our lives by years, 
months, weeks, and days ; but it is all but one 
day ; there is the morning, noon, afternoon, and 
evening : » Man is as the grass that springs in the 
morning- Ps.xc.5. As for all the days that 
are past of our life, death hath them rather than 
we, and they are already in its possession; when 
we look back on them, they appear but as a sha- 
dow or dream ; and if they be so to us, how much 
more short are they in the sight of God. Ps. 
xxxix. 4, 5. Archbishop Leighton. 

Trust in God the last Security in trying 
Dispensations. 
Nothing doth so establish the mind amidst the 
rollings and turbulency of present things, as both 
a look above them, and a look beyond them 5— 



194 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



above them, to the steady and good hand by which 
they are ruled ; and beyond them, to the sweet and 
beautiful end, to which, by that hand, they shall 
be brought. 1 Pet, iv. 19. 

Archbishop Leigiiton 

Outward Difficulties aggravated by inward 
Sins. 

Truly, all outward difficulties would be but 
matter of ease, would be as nothing, were it not 
the incumbrance of lusts and corruptions within. 
Were a man to meet disgraces and sufferings for 
Christ, how easily would he go through them, 
yea, and rejoice in them, were he rid of the fret- 
ting impatience, the pride, and self-love, of his 
own carnal heart. Archbishop Leighton 



Gods Works to be viewed as a Whole. 
Be not sudden, take God's work together, and 
do not judge of it by parcels. It is, indeed, all 
wisdom and righteousness : but we shall best dis- 
cern the beauty of it when we look on it in the 
frame, and when it shall be fully completed and 
finished, and our eyes enlightened to take a fuller 
and clearer view of it than we can have here. 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 195 

Oh ! what wonder ! what endless wondering will 
it then command ! — See Joseph's History. 

Archbishop Leighton. 

Dangers of Self-love. 
This is that bitter root of all enmity in man 
against God, and, amongst men, against one ano- 
ther, self, — man's heart turned from God to- 
wards himself ; and the very work of renewing 
grace is, to annul and destroy self, to replace God 
in his right, that the heart, and all its affections 
and motives, may be at his disposal. So that, 
instead of self-will and self-love that ruled before, 
now the will of God, and the love of God, com- 
mand all. Archbishop Leighton. 



The Importance of Cultivating a Heavenly 
Frame of Mind, 
Were we acquainted with the way of inter- 
mixing holy thoughts, ejaculatory eyings of God, 
in our ordinary ways, it would keep the heart in a 
sweet temper all the day long, and have an excel- 
lent influence in all our ordinary actions and holy 
performances. This were to " walk with God v 
indeed ; to go all the day long as in our Father's 



196 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



hand ; whereas, without this, our praying morning 
and evening, looks but as a formal visit, not de- 
lighting in that constant converse which yet is 
our happiness and honour, and makes all estates 
sweet. This would refresh us in the hardest la- 
bour ; as they that carry the spices from Arabia 
are refreshed with the smell of them in their jour- 
ney; and some observe, that it keeps their 
strength, and frees them from fainting. P$. xvi. 
8. Archbishop Leighton. 

Sin only subdued by Grace. 
The chains of sin are so strong, and so fastened 
on our nature, that there is in us no power to break 
them off, till a mightier and stronger Spirit than 
our own come into us. The Spirit of Christ, 
dropped into the soul, makes it able to break 
through a troop, and leap over a wall, as David 
speaks of himself furnished with the strength of 
his God. Ps. xviii. 29. Men's resolutions fall to 
nothing : and as a prisoner that offers to escape, 
and does not, is bound faster, thus usually it is 
with men in their self-purposes of forsaking sin ; 
they leave out Christ in the work, and so remain 
in their captivity, yea, it grows upon them; and 
while we press them to free themselves, and show 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 197 



not Christ to them, we put them upon an impossi- 
bility : but a look to Him makes it feasible and 
easy, 1 Pet. iv. 2, 3. Archbishop Leighton, 

Dissimulation in Religion to be greatly 
dreaded. 

Beware of an external, superficial sanctifying 
of God, for he takes it not so ; nay, he will in- 
terpret that a profaning of him and his name. 
Gal. vi. 7. « Be not deceived, God is not 
mocked." He looks through all visages and ap- 
pearances upon the heart; sees how it entertains 
him, and stands affected to him. 

Archbishop Leighton. 

The unspeakable Benefits of genuine Christian 
Contentment. 

Bishop Hall has said in his Meditations, 
"I have somewhat of the best things, I will 
thankfully enjoy them, and will want the rest with 
contentment." By attaining and maintaining this 
frame of heart, we might have much of heaven on 
this side heaven. Holy contentment maketh them 
truly rich, whom the oppressing world maketh 
very poor. Hereby our sweetest morsels shall be 
well sweetened, and our bitterest portions well 



198 SELECT SENTENCES FROM 



sweetened. Pro. xvii. 1. Had we learned to enjoy 
contentment in Jehovah, who is immutable and 
all-sufficient, this heavenly frame of spirit should 
never perish or change in the midst of the most 
amazing changes ; whereas, because we live alone 
upon sublunaries, therefore our hearts, like Na- 
baPs, are apt to die within us. 1 Sam.xxv. 37. 
When God seeth cause to cut us short of many 
creature-accommodations, faith will moderate our 
desires after them, assuring the soul that nothing 
is withdrawn, or withheld, which might be really 
advantageous ; and doubtless it is a great piece of 
happiness upon earth, not to long after that which 
the Lord is pleased to deny. Indeed, men act 
rather like Heathens than Christians, when they 
fret upon some particular inferior disappointments, 
notwithstanding God's liberality laid forth upon 
them in many other respects. As Alexander, the 
monarch of the world, was discontented, because 
ivy would not grow in his gardens at Babylon. 
Diogenes, the Cynic, was herein more wise, who 
finding a mouse in his sachel, said, he saw that 
himself was not so poor, but some were glad of 
his leavings. O how might we (if we had hearts 
to improve higher providences) rock our peevish 
spirits quiet by much stronger arguments ! Phil. 
• v n % Simeon Ashe. 



EMINENT DIVINES, &C. 199 



On forgetting the Word, 

If a scholar have his rules laid before him, and 
he forgets them as fast as he reads them, he will 
never learn. Jam. i. 25. Aristotle calls the me- 
mory the scribe of the soul ; and Bernard calls it 
the stomach of the soul, because it hath a reten- 
tive faculty, and turns heavenly food into blood 
and spirit. We have great memories in other 
things ; we remember that which is vain. Cyrus 
could remember the name of every soldier in his 
large army ; we remember injuries, but, as 
Hierom saith, how soon do we forget the sacred 
truths of God! We are apt to forget three 
things — our faults, our friends, our instructions. 

Tho. Watson. 

V anity of the World. 

O you that dote upon this world, for what vic- 
tory do you fight? Your hopes can be crowned 
with no greater reward than the world can give ; 
and what is the world, but a brittle thing full of 
dangers, wherein we travel from lesser to greater 
perils ? O let all her vain, light, momentary glory 
perish with herself, and let us be conversant with 
more eternal things. Alas ! this world is miser- 
able; life is short, and death is sure. 

Augustine. 



200 SELECT SENTENCE'S, &C. 

Joy in God. 

That is the true and chief joy which is not con- 
ceived from the creature, but received from the 
Creator, which (being once possessed thereof) 
none can take from thee: whereto all pleasure, 
being compared, is torment, all joy is grief, sweet 
things are bitter, all glory is baseness, and all de- 
lectable things are despicable. Bernard. 

True Wisdom* 
O that men would be wise, and understand, and 
foresee. Be wise, to know three things, — the mul- 
titude of those that are to be damned ; the few 
number of those that are to be saved ; and the 
vanity of transitory things : understand three 
things; the multitude of sins, the omission of 
good things, and the loss of time : foresee three 
things ; the danger of death, the last judgement, 
and eternal punishment. 

S. Bon a vent, de Contemptu Saculi. 

On sanctified Affliction. 
O happy sickness, where the infirmity is not to 
death, but to life, that God may be glorified by 
it ! O happy fever, that proceedeth not from a 
consuming, but a calcining fire ! O happy dis- 
temper, wherein the soul relisheth no earthly 
things, but only savoureth divine nourishment ! 

Gisten. 



201 



M'LAURIN'S CELEBRATED DISCOURSE ON 
THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 



Gal. vi. 14, 

But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus 
Christ i by whom the worldis crucified unto me, and I unto the world. 

It is an old and useful observation, that many 
of the most excellent objects in the world, are ob- 
jects whose excellency does not appear at first 
view; as on the other hand, many things of little 
value appear more excellent at first than a narrower 
view discovers them to be. There are some things 
we admire, because we do not know them, and 
the more we know them, the less we admire them ; 
there are other things we despise through igno- 
rance, because it requires pains and application 
to discover theirteauty and excellency. 

This holds true in nothing more than in that 
glorious despised object mentioned in the text 
There is nothing the world is more divided about 
m its opinion, than this. To the one part it is al- 
together contemptible, to the other it is altoge- 
ther glorious ; the one part of the world wonders 
what attractives others find in it: and the other 
k 2 



/ 



202 m'laurin's discourse on 

part wonders how the rest of the world are so 
stupid as not to see them ; and are amazed at the 
blindness of others, and their own former blind- 
ness. 

It is said of the famous reformer Melancton, 
when he first saw the glory of this object at his 
conversion, he imagined he could easily, by plain 
persuasion, convince others of it : that the matter 
being so plain, and the evidence so strong, he did 
not see how, on a fair representation, any could 
stand out against it. But upon trial, he was forced 
to express himself with regret, that old Adam was 
too strong for young Melancton, and that human 
corruption was too strong for human persuasion, 
without divine grace. 

The true use we should make of this, is certain- 
ly to apply for that enlightening grace to our- 
selves, which the apostle Paul prays for in the 
behalf of the Ephesians, Eph. i. 17. That the 
God of our Lord Jesus Christ— may give us the 
spirit of wisdom, and revelation in the knowledge of 
him. But as here and in other cases, prayers and 
means should be joined together ; so one of the 
principal means of right knowledge of the princi- 
pal object of our faith, and ground of our hope, 
is to meditate on the glory of that object, asserted 
so strongly in this text, and that by one, who for- 



THE CROSS OP CHRIST. 203 

merly had as diminishing thoughts of it, as any of 
its enemies can have. 

In the verses preceding the text, the apostle tells 
the Galatians, what some false teachers among 
them gloried in ; here he tells what he gloried in 
himself. They gloried in the old ceremonies of 
the Jewish law, which were but shadows; he 
gloried in the cross of Christ, the substance : 
he knew it was an affront to the substance, to 
continue these shadows in their former force, after 
the substance itself appeared, therefore he regrets 
that practice with zeal, and at the same time con- 
fines his own glorying to that blessed objec 
which the shadows were designed to signify. 
God forbid that I should glory , save in the cross of 
Christf fyc. 

Here the apostle showeth us, both his high 
esteem of the cross of Christ and the powerful in- 
fluence of it upon his mind. The cross of Christ 
signifies in scripture, sometimes our sufferings for 
Christ, sometimes his suffering for us. As the 
latter is the chief, and most natural sense of the 
words, so there is reason to think it is the sense 
of the apostle here : this is the sense of the same 
expression, in the 12th verse of this chapter, 
which speaks of persecution (that is our suffering) 
for the cross of Christ, that is, the doctrine of 



204 m'laurin's discourse on 



Christ's cross : besides it is certain that it is not 
our sufferings, but Christ's sufferings, which we 
are chiefly to glory in, to the exclusion of other 
things ; and it is not the former chiefly, but the 
latter, that mortifies our corruptions, and crucifies 
the world to us. 

The cross of Christ may signify here, not only 
his death, but the whole of his humiliation, or all 
the sufferings of his life and death ; of which suf- 
ferings, the cross was the consummation : the 
apostle, both here and elsewhere, mentions the 
cross, to remind us of the manner of his death, 
and to strengthen in our minds those impressions 
which the condescension of that death had made, 
or ought to have made in them: that the author 
of liberty should suffer the death of a slave; the 
fountain of honour, the height of disgrace ; that 
the punishments which were wont to be inflicted 
upon the meanest persons for the highest offences, 
should be inflicted on the greatest person that 
could suffer: this is the subject that the apostle 
gloried in. 

There are not two things more opposite, than 
glory and shame ; here the apostle joins them to- 
gether: the cross in itself is an object full of 
shame; in this case it appeareth to the apostle 
full of glory : it had been less remarkable, had he 



THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 205 



only said, he gloried in his Redeemer's exaltation 
after he left the world, or in the glory he had with 
the Father before he came to it, yea, before the 
world was: but the object of the apostle's glory- 
ing, is the Redeemer, not only considered in the 
highest state of honour and dignity, but even 
viewed in the lowest circumstances of disgrace and 
ignominy, not only as a powerful and exalted, 
but as a condemned and crucified Saviour. 

Glorying signifies the highest degree of esteem ; 
the cross of Christ was an object of which the 
apostle had the most exalted sentiments, and the 
most profound veneration ; this veneration he took 
pleasure to avow before the world, and was ready 
to publish on all occasions ; this object so occu- 
pied his heart and engrossed his affections, that 
it left no room for any thing else ; he gloried in 
nothing else; and, as he telleth us in other places, 
he counted every thing else but loss and dung, 
and would know nothing else, and was determined 
about it. 1 Cor. ii. 2. 

The manner of expressing his esteem of this ob- 
ject has a remarkable force and vehemence in it, 
God forbid, or let it by no means happen ; as if 
he had said, " God forbid, whatever others do, 
that ever it should be said, that Paul, the old per- 
secutor, should glory in any thing else, but in the 



/ 

206 m'laurin's discourse on 

crucified Redeemer \ who plucked him as a brand 
out of the fire, when he was running farther and 
farther into it ; and who pursued him with mercy 
and kindness, when he was pursuing him in his 
members, with fierceness and cruelty. I did it 
through ignorance (and it is only through igno- 
rance that any despise him ;) he has now revealed 
himself to me, and God forbid that the light that 
met me near Damascus should ever go out of my 
mind ; it was a light full of glory, the object it 
discovered was all glorious, my all in all, and 
God forbid that I should glory in any thing 
else." 

His esteem of that blessed object was great, 
and its influence on him porportionable : by it the 
world was crucified to him, and he was crucified 
to the world ; here is a mutual crucifixion. His 
esteem of Christ was the cause why the world de- 
spised him, and was despised by him ; not that 
the cross made him hate the men of the world, or 
refuse the lawful enjoyments of it. It allowed 
him the use of the latter, and obliged him to love 
the former: but it crucified these corruptions, 
which are contrary both to the love of our neigh- 
bour, and the true enjoyment of the creatures. 
This is called fighting, warring, wrestling, and 
killing. The reason is, because we should look 



THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 207 

upon sin as our greatest enemy, the greatest enemy 
of our souls, and of the Saviour of our souls ; this 
was the view the apostle had of sin, and of the 
corruption that is in the world through lust, 
2 Pet. i. 4. ; he looked upon it as the murderer of 
his Redeemer, and this inspired him with a just 
resentment against it; it filled him with these 
blessed passions against it mentioned by himself, 
2 Cor. vii. 11. as the native fruits of faith, and re- 
pentance, zeal, indignation, revenge ; that is, such 
a detestation of sin, as was joined with the most 
careful watchfulness against it. 

This is that crucifying of the world, meant by 
the apostle ; the reason of the expression is, be- 
cause the inordinate love of worldly things is one 
of the chief sources of sin ; the cross of Christ 
gave such a happy turn to the apostle's affections, 
that the world was no more the same thing to him 
that it was to others, and that it had been for- 
merly to himself. His soul was sick of its pomp ; 
and the things he was most fond of before, had 
now lost their relish with him ; its honours ap- 
peared now contemptible, its riches poor, its plea- 
sures nauseous ; its examples and favours did not 
allure, nor its hatred terrify him ; he considered 
the love or hatred of men, not chiefly as it affected 
him, but themselves, by furthering or hindering 



208 m'laurin's discourse on 



the success of his doctrine among them ; all these 
things may be included in that crucifying of the 
world, mentioned in the last clause of the verse : 
but the intended ground of the discourse being 
the first clause, the doctrine to be insisted on 
is this. 

" That the cross of Christ affords sinners mat- 
ter of glorying above all other things ; yea, that it 
is in a manner the only thing they should glory 
in : the whole humiliation of Christ, and particu- 
larly his death for the sake of sinners, is an object 
that has such incomparable glory in it, that it be- 
comes us to have the most honourable and exalted 
thoughts of it." As this is evidently contained in 
the text, so it is frequently inculcated on us in 
other scriptures, (2Cor.iv. 6. 2 Cor.iii. 18. 1 Cor. 
i. 19 and 24 ;) it is plain that when the scriptures 
speak of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus 
Christ, it is meant chiefly of his glory in the face 
of Christ crucified \ that is, in the work of re- 
demption finished on the cross. 

In discoursing on this subject, it will be proper 
first to consider briefly, What it is to glory in any 
object; and then, What ground of glorying we 
have in this blessed object, proposed in the text. 

To glory in any object includes these two 
things ; first a high esteem of it, and then some 



THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 209 

concern in it. We do not glory in the things we 
are interested in, unless we esteem them; nor in 
the things we admire and esteem unless we are 
some way interested in them. But although all 
professing Christians are some way concerned to 
glory in the cross of Christ, because of their out- 
ward relation to him, by their baptismal covenant, 
and because the blessed fruits of his cross are both 
plainly revealed, and freely offered to them ; yet 
it is those only who have sincerely embraced these 
offers that can truly glory in that object. Yet 
what is their privilege, is the duty of all : all 
should be exhorted to glory in this object, and to 
have a high esteem of it ; because of its excel- 
lency in itself; to fix their hearts on it by faith, 
because it is offered to them ; to shew their es- 
teem of it, by seeking an interest in it ; and hav- 
ing a due esteem of it, and obtained an interest in 
it, to study a frame of habitual triumph in it. 
But the nature of this happy frame of mind is 
best understood, by considering the glory of the 
object of it. 

The ancient prophets, who foretell Christ's com- 
ing, appear transported with the view of his glory. 
Not only the New Testament, but also the Old, 
represents the Messias as the most remarkable 
and most honourable person that ever appeared 



210 m'latjrin's discourse on 



on the stage of the world ; it speaks of him as a 
glorious governor, a prince, a king, a conqueror ; 
besides other magnificent titles of the greatest 
dignity ; shewing that his government should be 
extensive and everlasting, and that his glory should 
fill the whole earth. But, while the prophets foretell 
his greatness, they foretell also his meanness ; 
they shew, indeed, he was to be a glorious king, 
but a king who would be rejected and despised of 
men : and that after all the great expectation the 
world would have of him, he was to pass over the 
stage of the world disregarded and unobserved, 
excepting as to the malicious treatment he was to 
meet with on it. 

About the time of his coming, the Jews were 
big with hopes of him as the great deliverer and 
chief ornament of their nation. And if history 
may be credited, even the heathens had a notion 
about that time, which possibly was derived from 
the Jewish prophesies, that there was a prince of 
unparalleled glory, to rise in the East, and even in 
Judea in particular, who was to found a kind of 
universal monarchy. But their vain hearts, like 
that of most men in all ages, were so intoxicated 
with the admiration of worldly pomp, that that 
was the only greatness they had any notion or 
relish of ; this made them form a picture of him, 



THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 211 



who was the desire of all nations, very unlike the 
original. 

A king which the world admires is one of ex- 
tensive power, with numerous armies, a golden 
crown and sceptre, a throne of state, magnificent 
palaces, sumptuous feasts, many attendants of 
high rank; immense treasures, to enrich them 
with, and various posts of honour to prefer 
them to. 

Here was the reverse of all this ; for a crown of 
gold, a crown of thorns ; for a sceptre, a reed put 
in his hand, in derision; for a throne, a cross; 
instead of palaces, not a place to lay his head in ; 
instead of sumptuous feasts to others, oftimes 
hungry and thirsty himself ; instead of great at- 
tendants, a company of poor fishermen; instead of 
treasures to give them, not money enough to pay 
tribute, without working a miracle ; and the pre- 
ferment offered them, was to give each of them his 
cross to bear. In all things the reverse of worldly 
greatness from first to last, a manger for a cradle 
at his birth, not a place to lay his head sometimes 
in his life, nor a grave of his own at his death. 

Here unbelief frets and murmurs, and asks 
where is all the glory that is so much extolled ? 
For discovering this, faith needs only look through 
that thin veil of flesh ; and under that low dis- 



212 m'laurin's discourse on 

guise appears the Lord of glory, the King of 
Kings, the Lord of hosts, strong and mighty, 
(Psal. xxiv. 8.) The Lord mighty in battle ; the 
heavens his throne, the earth his footstool, the 
light his garments, the clouds his chariots, the 
thunder his voice, his strength omnipotence, 
his riches all-sufficiency, his glory infinite, his 
retinue the hosts of heaven, and the excellent ones 
of the earth, on whom he bestows riches un- 
searchable, an inheritance incorruptible, banquets 
of everlasting joys, and preferments of immortal 
honour, making them kings and priests unto God, 
conquerors, yea, and more than conquerors, chil- 
dren of God, and mystically one with himself. 

Here appears something incomparable above 
all worldly glory, though under a mean disguise. 
But the objection is still against that disguise ; 
yet even that disguise, upon due consideration, 
will appear to be so glorious, that its very mean- 
ness is honourable : it was a glorious disguise, 
because the designs and effects of it are so : if he 
suffered shame, poverty, pain, sorrows and death, 
for a time, it was that we might not suffer these 
things for ever. That meanness therefore was 
glorious, because it was subservient unto an in- 
finitely glorious design of love and mercy. 

It was subservient more ways than one, it satis- 



THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 213 



fied the penalty of the law, it put unspeakable 
honour on the commandments of it. It was a part 
of Christ's design to make holiness (that is, obe- 
dience to the law) so honourable, that every thing 
else should be contemptible in comparison of it ; 
love of worldly greatness is one of the principal 
hinderances of it : we did not need the example 
of Christ to commend earthly grandeur to us, but 
very much to reconcile us to the contrary, and to 
make us esteem holiness, though accompanied 
with meanness : Christ's low state was an excel- 
lent mean for this end. There was, therefore, 
greatness, even in his meanness ; other men are 
honourable by their station, but Christ's station 
was made honourable by him ; he has made po- 
verty and meanness joined with holiness to be a 
state of dignity. 

Thus Christ's outward meanness, that disguised 
his real greatness, was in itself glorious, because 
of the design of it. Yet that meanness did not 
wholly becloud it ; many beams of glory shone 
through it. 

His birth was mean on earth below : but it was 
celebrated with Hallelujahs by the heavenly host 
in the air above; he had a poor lodging, but a 
star lighted visitants to it from distant countries. 
Never prince had such visitants so conducted. 



214 m'laurin's discourse on - 

He had not the magnificent equipage that other 
kings have, but he was attended with multitudes 
of patients, seeking and obtaining healing of soul 
and body ; that was more true greatness, than if 
he had been attended with crouds of princes : 
he made the dumb that attended him sing his 
praises, and the lame to leap for joy, the deaf to 
hear his wonders, and the blind to see his glory : 
he had no guard of soldiers, nor magnificent re- 
tinue of servants; but, as the centurion, that had 
both, acknowledged, health and sickness, life and 
death, took orders from him : even the winds and 
storms, which no earthly power can controul, 
obeyed him; and death and the grave durst not 
refuse to deliver up their prey when he demanded 
it. He did not walk upon tapestry : but when he 
walked on the sea, the waters supported him : all 
parts of the creation, excepting sinful men, ho- 
noured him as their Creator : he kept no treasure, 
but when he had occasion for money, the sea sent 
it to him in the mouth of a fish ; he had no barns, 
nor corn fields, but when he inclined to make a 
feast, a few loaves covered a sufficient table for 
many thousands. None of all the monarchs of the 
world ever gave such entertainment. By these, 
and many such things, the Redeemer's glory shone 
through his meanness, in the several parts of his 



THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 215 

life. Nor was it wholly clouded at his death ; he 
had not, indeed, that phantastic equipage of sor- 
row that other great persons have on such occa- 
sions. But the frame of nature solemnized the 
death of its Author; heaven and earth were 
mourners ; the sun was clad in black ; and if the 
inhabitants of the earth were unmoved, the earth 
itself trembled under the awful load ; there were 
few to pay the Jewish compliment of rending their 
garments, but the rocks were not so insensible ; 
they rent their bowels ; he had not a grave of his 
own, but other men's graves opened to him. 
Death and the grave might be proud of such a te- 
nant in their territories, but he came not there as 
a subject, but as an invader, a conqueror; it was 
then the king of terrors lost his sting, and on 
the third day the Prince of life triumphed over 
him, spoiling death and the grave. But this last 
particular belongs to Christ's exaltation ; the other 
instances shew a part of the glory of his humilia- 
tion, but it is a small part of it. 

The glory of the cross of Christ, which we are 
chiefly to esteem, is the glory of God's infinite 
perfections displayed in the work of redemption, 
as the apostle expresses it, the glory of God in the 
face of Christ Jesus, (2 Cor. iv. 6.) Even of Christ 
crucified, 1 Cor. ii. 2. It is this which makes any 



216 m'laurxn's discourse on 

other object glorious, according as it manifests 
more or less of the perfections of God. This is 
what makes the works of creation so glorious; the 
heavens declare God's glory, and the firmament 
his handy- work. And we are inexcusable for not 
taking more pains to contemplate God's perfec- 
tions in them, his almighty power, and incompre- 
hensible wisdom, and particularly his infinite 
goodness. But the effects of the Divine good- 
ness, in the works of creation, are only temporal 
favours ; the favours purchased to us by the cross 
of Christ are eternal. Besides, although the works 
of creation plainly show that God is in himself 
good ; yet they also show that God is just, and 
that he is displeased with us for our sins ; nor do 
they point out to us the way how we may be re- 
conciled to him : they publish the Creator's glory, 
they publish at the same time his laws, and our 
obligations to obey them. Our consciences tell 
us we have neglected these obligations, violated 
these laws, and consequently incurred the law- 
giver's displeasure : his works declaring his glory, 
show that in his favour is life, and consequently 
that in his displeasure is death and ruin; yea, they 
lay us in some measure under his displeasure 
already. Why else do natural causes give so 
much trouble in life, and pain in death 1 From 



THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 217 



all quarters the works of God revenge the quarrel 
of his broken law : they give these frail bodies 
subsistence for a time, but it is a subsistence em- 
bittered with many vexations, and at last they 
crush them, and dissolve them in dust. 

The face of nature then is glorious in itself, but 
it is overcast with a gloom of terror to us ; it 
shows the glory of the judge to the criminal ; the 
glory of the offended sovereign to the guilty rebel : 
this is not the way to give comfort and relief to a 
criminal ; it is not the way to make him glory and 
triumph : accordingly the enemies of the cross of 
Christ, who refuse to know God, otherwise than 
by the works of nature, are so far from glorying 
in the hopes of enjoying God in heaven, that they 
renounce all those great expectations, and ge- 
nerally deny that there is any such blessedness to 
be had. Conscience tells us, we are rebels against 
God; and nature does not show how such rebels 
may recover his favour; how in such a well- 
ordered government, as the divine government 
must be, the righteous judge and lawgiver may be 
glorified, and the criminal escape ; much less how 
the judge may be glorified, and the criminal 
obtain glory likewise. 

The language of nature, though it be plain and 
loud in proclaiming the glory of the Creator, yet 

L 



218 m'laurin's discourse on 

it is dark and intricate as to his inclination to- 
wards guilty creatures : it neither assures peremp- 
torily that we are in a state of despair, nor gives 
sure footing for our hopes. If we are favourites, 
whence so many troubles? If we are hopeless 
criminals, whence so many favours? Nature 
shows God's glory and our shame ; his law our 
duty, and consequently our danger: but about 
the way of escape, it is silent and dumb : it affords 
many motives for exciting desires after God ; but 
it shows not the way to get these desires satis- 
fied. Herein the text is an object which gives us 
better intelligence. It directs us not merely to 
seek by feeling in the dark (Acts xvii. 27.) if 
haply we may find, but to seek him so, as cer- 
tainly to find him. Unlikely doctrine to a carnal 
mind: that there should be more of God's glory 
manifested to us in the face of Christ crucified, 
than in the face of heaven and earth ; the face of 
Christ, in which sense discovers nothing but 
marks of pain and disgrace ; that bloated, man- 
gled visage, red with gore, covered with marks of 
scorn, swelled with strokes, and pale with death, 
that would be the last object in which the carnal 
mind would seek to see the glory of the Goo of 
life ; a visage clouded with the horror of death ; 
it would with more pleasure and admiration, view 



THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 



219 



the same face when transfigured, and shining like 
the sun in its strength. Divine glory shone in- 
deed then in a bright manner in that face on the 
mount ; but not so brightly, as on mount Calvary : 
this was the more glorious transfiguration of the 
two. Though all the light in the world, in the 
sun and stars, were collected together into one 
stupendous mass of light, it would be but dark- 
ness to the glory of this seemingly dark and me- 
lancholy object: for it is here, as the apostle 
expresses it, 2 Cor. iii. 18. We all as with open 
face may behold the glory of God. 

Here shines spotless justice, incomprehensible 
wisdom, and infinite love all at once : none of 
them darkens or eclipses the other, every one of 
them gives a lustre to the rest. They mingle 
their beams, and shine with united, eternal splen- 
dor : The just Judge, the merciful Father, and 
the wise Governor. No other object gives such 
a display of all these perfections, yea, all the ob- 
jects we know, give not such a display of any one 
of them. No where does justice appear so awful, 
mercy so amiable, or wisdom, so profound. 

By the infinite dignity of Christ's person, his 
cross gives more honour and glory to the law and 
justice of God, than all the other sufferings that 
ever were or will be endured in the world. When 



220 m'laurin's discourse on 

the apostle is speaking to the Romans of the gos-* 
pel, he does not tell them only of God's mercy, 
but also of his justice, revealed by it, Rom. i. 18. 
God's wrath against the unrighteousness of men, 
is chiefly revealed by the righteousness and suf- 
ferings of Christ. The Lord was pleased for his 
righteousness sake. Isa. xlii. 21. Both by re- 
quiring and appointing that righteousness, he 
magnified the law and made it honourable : and 
though that righteousness consists in obedience 
and sufferings which continue for a time, yet since 
the remembrance of them will continue for ever, 
the cross of Christ may be said to give eternal 
majesty and honour to that law which is satisfied, 
that awful law, by which the universe (which is 
God's kingdom) is governed, to which the princi- 
palities and powers of heaven are subject ; that 
law, which, in condemning sin, banished the devil 
and his angels from heaven, our first parents from 
paradise, and peace from the earth. Considering 
therefore, that God is the judge and lawgiver of 
the world, it is plain that his glory shines with 
unspeakable brightness in the cross of Christ, as 
the punishment of sin. But this is the very thing 
that hinders the lovers of sin from acknowledging 
the glory of the cross ; because it shows so much 
of God's hatred of what they love. It would be 



THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 221 

useful for removing such prejudices, to consider, 
that though Christ's Sacrifice shows the punish- 
ment of sin, yet, if we embrace that sacrifice, it 
only shores it to us ; it takes it off our hands, it 
leaves us no more to do with it : and surely the 
beholding our danger, when we behold it as pre- 
vented, serves rather to increase than lessen our 
joy ; by seeing the greatness of our danger, we see 
the greatness of our deliverance. The cross of 
Christ displays the glory of infinite justice, but 
not of justice alone. 

Here shines chiefly the glory of infinite mercy. 
Nothing in the world more lovely, or glorious, 
than love and goodness itself, and this is the 
greatest instance of it that can be conceived. 
God's goodness appears in all his works ; this is 
a principal part of the glory of the creation. We 
are taught to consider this lower world as a con- 
venient habitation, built for men to dwell in; but, 
to allude to the apostle's expression, Heb. iii. 3, 
this gift we are speaking of, should be accounted 
more worthy of honour than the world, in as much 
as he who hath built the house hath more honour 
than the house. 

When God gave us his Son, he gave us an in- 
finitely greater gift than the world ; the Creator is 
infinitely more glorious than the creature, and the 



222 



m'laurin's discourse on 



Son of God is the Creator of all things. God 
can make innumerable worlds by the word of his 
mouth ; he has but one only Son, and he spared 
not his only Son, but gave him to the death of the 
cross for us all. 

God's love to his people is from everlasting to 
everlasting : but from everlasting to everlasting- 
there is no manifestation of it known, or con- 
ceiveable by us, that can be compared to this. 
The light of the sun is always the same, but it 
shines brightest to us at noon : the cross of Christ 
was the noon-tide of everlasting love ; the meridian 
splendor of eternal mercy ; there were many bright 
manifestations of the same love before ; but they 
were like the light of the morning, that shines 
more and more unto the perfect day ; and that 
perfect day was when Christ was on the cross, 
when darkness covered all the land. 

Comparisons can give but a very imperfect view 
of this love which passeth knowledge : though we 
should suppose all the love of all the men that 
ever were, or shall be on the earth, and all the 
love of the angels in heaven, united in one heart, 
it would be but a cold heart to that which was 
pierced with the soldier's spear. The Jews saw 
but blood and water, but faith can discern a bright 
ocean of eternal love flowing out of these wounds. 



THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 223 

We may have some impression of the glory of it, 
by considering its effects : we should consider all 
the spiritual and eternal blessings, received by 
God's people for four thousand years before Christ 
was crucified, or that have been received since, 
or that will be received till the consummation of 
all things; all the deliverances from eternal 
misery ; all the oceans of joy in heaven; the rivers 
of water of life, to be enjoyed to all eternity, by 
multitudes as the sand of the sea shore. We 
should consider all these blessings as flowing from 
that love, that was displayed in the cross of 
Christ. 

Here shines also the glory of the incomprehen- 
sible wisdom of God, which consists in promoting 
the best ends by the fittest means. The ends of 
the cross are best in themselves, and the best for 
us that can be conceived ; the glory of God, and 
the good of man : and the means by which it ad- 
vances these ends, are so fit and suitable, that the 
infinite depth of contrivance in them will be the 
admiration of the universe to eternity. 

It is an easy thing to conceive the glory of the 
Creator manifested in the good of an innocent 
creature; but the glory of the righteous judge 
manifested in the good of the guilty criminal, is 
the peculiar mysterious wisdom of the cross. It 



224 m'laurin's discourse on 

is easy to conceive God's righteousness declared 
in the punishment of sins; the Cross alone declares 
his righteousness in the remission of sins, Rom. iii. 25. 
It magnifies justice in the way of pardoning sin, 
and mercy in the way of punishing it. It shows 
justice more awful than if mercy had been ex- 
cluded, and mercy more amiable than if justice 
had been dispensed with; It magnifies the lazv, 
and makes it honourable. Isa. xlii. 21- It magni- 
fies the criminal who broke the law; and the 
respect put upon the law makes him honourable 
likewise, 1 Cor. ii. 7. Yea, this is so contrived, 
that every honour done to the criminal is an 
honour done to the law, and all the respect put 
upon the law puts respect also on the criminal ; 
for every blessing the sinner receives, is for the 
sake of obedience and satisfaction made to the 
law, not by himself, but by another, who could 
put infinitely greater dignity on the law : and the 
satisfaction of that other for the sinner, puts the 
greatest dignity on him that he is capable of. 
Both the law and the sinner may glory in the Cross 
of Christ. Both of them receive eternal honour 
and glory by it. 

The glories that are found separately in the 
other works of God, are found united here. The 
joys of heaven glorify God's goodness, the pains 



THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 225 



of hell glorify his justice ; the cross of Christ glo- 
rifies both of them in a more remarkable manner 
than heaven or hell glorifies any of them. There 
is more remarkable honour done to the justice of 
God by the sufferings of Christ, than by the tor- 
ments of devils ; and there is a more remarkable 
display of the goodness of God, in the redemption 
of sinners, than in the joy of angels: so that we 
can conceive no object, in which we discover such 
manifold wisdom, or so deep contrivance for 
advancing the glory of God. 

The like may be said of its contrivance for the 
good of man. It heals all his diseases, it pardons 
all Ms sins. Psal. ciii. It is the sacrifice that re- 
moves the guilt of sin, it is the motive that re- 
moves the love of sin ; it mortifies sin and expiates 
it. It atones for disobedience, it excites to obe- 
dience ; it purchases strength for obedience, it 
makes obedience practicable, it makes it delight- 
ful, it makes it acceptable, it makes it in a man- 
ner unavoidable, it constrains to it. 2 Cor. v. 14. 
It is not only the motive to obedience, but the 
pattern of it. It satisfies the curse of the law, and 
fulfils the commands of it. Love is the fulfilling 
of the law, the sum of which is the love of God, 
and of our neighbour. The cross of Christ is the 
highest instance of both: Christ's sufferings are to 
l2 



226 m'laurin's discourse on 

be considered as actions ; never action gave such 
glory to God, never action did such good to man: 
and it is the way to show our love to God and 
man, by promoting the glory of the one, and the 
good of the other. 

Thus the sufferings of Christ teach us our duty, 
by the love whence they flowed, and that good 
for which they were designed : but they teach 
us, not only by the design of them, but also by the 
manner of his undergoing them. Submission to 
God, and forgiveness of our enemies, are two of 
the most difficult duties ; the former is one of the 
chief expressions of love to God, and the latter 
of love to man ; but the highest submission is, 
when a person submits to suffering, though free of 
guilt ; and the highest forgiveness is, to forgive our 
murderers ; especially if the murderers were per- 
sons who were obliged to us ; as if a person not 
only should forgive them that took away his life, 
even though they owed him their own life, but 
also desire others to forgive them, pray for them, 
and as much as possible excuse them. This was 
the manner of Christ's bearing his sufferings; 
Father, thy will be done: and, Father, for give them, 
for they know not what they do. 

Thus we see how fit a mean the Cross is for 
promoting the best ends, for justification and 



THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 227 

sanctification : it would be too long to insist here 
in showing its manifold fitness, for promoting also 
joy and peace here, and everlasting happiness 
hereafter : for no doubt, it will be a great part of 
the future happiness, to remember the way it was 
purchased, and to see the Lamb that was slain, at 
the right hand of him, that gave him for that end. 
The things already adduced, show that the incom- 
prehensible wisdom of God is gloriously displayed 
in the cross of Christ, because it hath such amaz- 
ing contrivance in it for advancing the good of 
man, as well as the glory of God : for that is the 
design of it, to show the glory of God, and good- 
will towards man. 

But it is not only the glory of divine Wisdom 
that shines in this blessed object, but also the 
glory of divine power. This to them who know 
not Christ is no small paradox ; but to them who 
believe, Christ crucified, is the wisdom of God and 
the power of God, 1 Cor. i. 24. The Jews thought 
Christ's crucifixion a demonstration of his want 
of power ; hence they upbraided him, that he who 
wrought so many miracles, suffered himself to 
hang on the cross : but this was itself the greatest 
miracle of all. They asked, why he who saved 
others, saved not himself ; they named the reason 
without taking heed to it; that was the very 



228 m'laurin's discourse on 



reason why at that time he saved not himself, 
because he saved others ; because he was willing 
and able to save others : the motive of his endur- 
ing the cross was powerful, divine love, stronger 
than death; the fruits of it powerful, divine grace, 
the power of God to salvation, Rom. i. 16. mak- 
ing new creatures, raising souls from the dead ; 
these are acts of Omnipotence. We are ready to 
admire chiefly the power of God in the visible 
world, but the soul of man is a far nobler creature 
than it : We justly admire the power of the 
Creator in the motion of the heavenly bodies, but 
the motion of the souls towards God as their 
centre, is far more glorious; the effects of the 
same power far more eminent, and far more 
lasting. 

The wounds of Christ seemed effects of weak- 
ness ; but it is easy to observe incomparable 
strength appearing in them : we should consider 
what it was that bruised him ; He was bruised for 
our iniquities: the Scripture represents them, Isa. 
Mi. as a great burden ; and describes us all lying 
helpless under it, as a people laden with iniquity. 
Christ bore our sins in his own body on the tree ; 
he bore our griefs, and carried our sorrows; not 
these we feel here only, but those we deserved to 
feel hereafter : we should consider who laid this 



THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 229 

burden on him ; The Lord laid on him the iniquities 
of us all, Isa. liii. 6. We might well say with 
Cain, our punishment was more than we were able 
to bear ; this might be said to every one of us 
apart ; but it was not the sins of one that he bore, 
he bore the sins of many, of multitudes as the 
sand on the sea-shore, and the sins of every one of 
them, as numerous. This was the heaviest and 
most terrible weight in the world. 

The curse of the law was a weight sufficient to 
crush a world. They who first brought it on 
themselves found it so : it sunk legions of angels 
who excel in strength, when they had abused that 
strength against the law, from the heaven of hea- 
vens, to the bottomless pit. The same weight that 
had crushed rebel angels, threatened man for 
joining with them. Before man could bear it; 
before any person could have his own proportion 
of it, it behoved, as it were, to be divided into 
numberless parcels ; man, after numberless ages, 
would have borne but a small part of it; The Wrath 
to come would have been always wrath to come, to 
all eternity ; there would have been still infinitely 
more to bear. Christ only had strength to bear it 
all, to bear it all, in a manner at once, to bear it 
all alone, none of the people were with him ; our 
burden and our help was laid on one who was 



230 m'laurin's discourse on 

mighty : and his bearing it, was a glorious mani- 
festation of his might, of the noblest kind of 
might, that he was mighty to save. 

It is true, that load bruised him ; but we would 
not be surprised at that, if we consider the dread- 
fulness of the shock. Could we conceive the 
weight of eternal justice, ready to fall down, like 
lightning, with violence upon a world of male- 
factors, and view that sacred body interposed be- 
twixt the load of wrath from above, and the heirs 
of wrath below, we would not wonder at these 
bruises, we would not despise them. We should 
consider the event, had that wrath fallen lower ; 
had it met with no obstacle, it would have made 
havoc of another kind ; this world would have 
been worse than a chaos, and been covered with the 
dismal effects of vindictive justice and Divine 
righteous vengeance. 

Although his sacred flesh was both mangled 
and marred with that dismal load, yet we should 
consider that it sustained it. Here was incom- 
parable strength, that it sustained that shock 
which would have grinded mankind into powder ; 
and he sustained it (as was said before) alone. 
He let no part of it fall lower : they who take 
sanctuary under this blessed covert, are so safe, 
that they have no more to do with that load of 



THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 231 

wrath but to look to it, John iii. 14. To allude 
to the Psalmist's expressions, Psal. xci. 7, 8. It 
shall not come nigh them, only with their eyes they 
behold, and see the reward of their wickedness ; but 
they shall see it given to the righteous One : and 
all that in effect is left to them in this matter, is 
by faith to look and behold what a load of ven- 
geance was hovering over their guilty heads, and 
how that guiltless and spotless body interposed ; 
they will see it crushed at a sad rate : but it is the 
end of the conflict, that shows on what side the 
victory is; in that dreadful struggle, Christ's 
body was brought as low as the grave: but, 
though the righteous fall, he rises again. Death 
was undermost in the struggle, 1 Cor. xv. 27 ; 
it was Christ that conquered in falling, and com- 
pleted the conquest in rising. The dause, de- 
sign, and effects of these wounds show incom- 
parable power and strength appearing in them ; 
the same strength appeared in his behaviour under 
them, and the manner in which he bore them, we 
see in the history of his death. He bore them 
with patience, and with pity and compassion to- 
wards others. A small part of his sorrow would 
have crushed the strongest spirit on earth to death. 
The constitution of man is not able to bear too 
great violence of joy or grief : either the one or the 



232 m'lauein's discourse on 



other is sufficient to unhinge our frame. Christ's 
griefs were absolutely incomparable, but his 
strength was a match for them. 

These considerations serve to show that it is 
the greatest stupidity, to have diminishing thoughts 
of the wounds of the Redeemer ! yet, because this 
has been the stumbling-block to the Jews, and 
foolishness to the Gentiles, and many professing 
Christians have not suitable impressions of it, it 
is proper to consider this subject a little more par- 
ticularly. It is useful to obserse how the Scrip- 
ture represents the whole of Christ's humiliation 
as one great action, by which he defeated the 
enemies of God and man, and founded a glorious, 
everlasting monarchy : the prophets, and particu- 
larly the Psalmist, speak so much of Christ, as a 
powerfuf conqueror whose enemies were to be 
made his footstool, that the Jews do still contend 
that their Messiah is to be a powerful temporal 
prince, and a great' fighter of battles, one who is 
to subdue their enemies by fire and sword, and by 
whom they themselves are to be raised above all 
the nations of the world. If pride and the love 
of earthly things did not blind them, it were easy 
to see that the descriptions of the prophets are 
vastly too high, to be capable of so low a mean- 
ing : this will be evident by taking a short view 



THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 



233 



of them ; which at the same time will show the 
glory of that great action just now spoken of, by 
showing the greatness of the design and the 
effects of it. 

The prophets oft-times speak more expressly of 
the Messias as a great King, which is a name of 
the greatest earthly dignity. The hand of Pilate 
was over-ruled to cause write that title of honour 
even on his cross : the glory of the kingdom that 
he was to found, is represented in very magnificent 
expressions by the prophet Daniel, chap. ii. 35 
and 45 verses, and chap. vii. 9, 10. 13, 14 verses. 
Here are lively representations of unparalleled 
greatness, an everlasting kingdom to be founded, 
strong obstacles to be removed, powerful enemies 
to be defeated. 

It is useful to observe the universal importance 
of this design: no part of the universe was 
unconcerned in it. 

The glory of the Creator was eminently to be 
displayed, all the divine persons were to be glori- 
ously manifested, the divine attributes to be mag- 
nified, the divine works and ways to be honoured ; 
the earth was to be redeemed, hell conquered, 
heaven purchased, the law to be magnified and 
established, Isa. xlii. 21. Its commandments to 
be fulfilled, its curse to be suffered, the law was 



234 



m'laurin's discourse on 



to be satisfied, and the criminal that broke it to 
be saved, and his tempter and accuser to be de- 
feated ; the head of the old serpent was to be 
bruised, his works to be destroyed, and the prin- 
cipalities and powers of darkness to be spoiled, 
and triumphed over openly, Col. ii. 15. The prin- 
cipalities and powers of heaven were to receive 
new matter of everlasting Hallelujahs, and new 
companions to join in them, the fallen angels were 
to lose their old subjects, and the blessed angels 
to receive new fellow-citizens : no wonder this is 
called the making a new heaven, and a new earth ; 
and even the face of hell was to be altered. 
Surely a more glorious design cannot be contrived ; 
and the more we consider it, the more we may see 
the greatness of the action that accomplished it. 

As the design was great, the preparations were 
solemn. The stage of it was to be this earth ; it 
was chiefly concerned in it : it was solemnly pre- 
pared for it. This is the view given us of the pro- 
vidences that preceded it ; they fitted the stage of 
the world, for the great event, in the fulness of 
time. If we saw clearly the whole chain of them, 
we would see how they pointed towards this as 
their centre, and how they contributed to honour 
it, or rather it reflected the greatest honour upon 
them. The forecited prophecies in Daniel, 



THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 



235 



besides several others, are instances of this ; they 
show how the great revolutions in the heathen 
world were subservient to this design, particu- 
larly the succession of the four monarchies re- 
presented in Nebuchadnezzar's dream : their rise 
and overthrow were subservient to the rise of this 
monarchy, never to be overthrown. 

We see but a small part of the chain of Provi- 
dence, and even that very darkly : but this, per- 
haps, is worth the observing briefly, that universal 
empire came gradually from the eastern to the 
western parts of the world, from the Assyrians 
and Persians, to the Greeks and Romans : by this 
means greater communication and correspon- 
dence than formerly was opened up between dis- 
tant nations of the earth, from the rising to the 
setting of the sun. The kingdom, represented by 
the stone cut out of the mountain, was to extend 
to both : Dan. ii. 34, 35. However we think of 
this, it is certain, that if we saw the plot of Pro- 
vidence unfolded, we would see these and other 
revolutions, contributing to the fulness of times, 
and adjusting the world to that state and form of 
things, that was fittest for the Redeemer's ap- 
pearance. 

These were a part of the preparations for the 
work in view ; but they were but a part of them : 



236 m'laurin's discourse on 

for all the sacrifices offered every morning and 
evening for so many ages, were preparations for 
it, and shadows of it: the same may be said of 
other figures and types. The church of God for 
four thousand years, waited with longing looks 
for this salvation of the Lord : they were re- 
freshed with the sacrifices that prefigured it : the 
Heathens themselves had their sacrifices : they 
had sinfully lost the tradition of the true religion 
and the Messiah, handed down from Noah; yet 
Providence ordered it so, that they did not wholly 
lose the rite of sacrificing. There is reason to ac- 
knowledge a particular providence preserving tra- 
dition in this point ; for how otherwise could it 
enter into men's heads, to serve their gods by 
sacrificing their beasts? It was useful that the 
world should not be entirely unacquainted with 
the notion of a sacrifice : the substitution of the 
innocent in the room of the guilty, all pointed 
towards this great oblation, which was to make all 
others to cease. The predictions of the prophets 
in different ages, from Moses to Malachi, were 
also preparations for this great event. John the 
Baptist appeared as the morning-star, the har- 
binger of the Day-spring from on high; it was 
his particular office to prepare the way of the 
Lord before him. The evidence of the prophecies 



THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 237 

was bright; the Jews saw the time approaching ; 
their expectations were big. Counterfeit Messiah 
took advantage of it; and not only the Jews, but 
even the heathens, probably by report from them, 
had a notion of an incomparably great person who 
was to appear about that time: these, besides 
many other great things, serve to show what 
glorious preparations and pomp went before the 
great work we are speaking of. ? , 

Here it may, perhaps, occur to some, that it is 
strange, an a ction that had such great preparations 
before it happened, was so little observed when it 
did happen. Strictly speaking, this was not true; 
it was not much noticed indeed among blind and 
ignorant men; this was foretold; but it had a 
noble theatre, the whole universe were in effect 
spectators of it. The scripture teacheth us to 
reflect on this ; particularly, to consider the prin- 
cipalities and powers in heavenly places, as atten- 
tive lookers on this glorious performance : we 
may infer this (besides other scriptures) from 
Eph. iii. 10. 

These morning-stars shouted for joy, and sang 
together at the old creation, Job xxxviii. 7. This 
was a new creation to sing at, a more amazing 
spectacle than the old : in that, the Son of God 
acted in the form of God ; now, he was to act in 



238 m'laurin's discourse on 

the low form of a servant. Nor was this the 
lowest part of it, he was to suffer in the form of a 
criminal: the judge in the form of a malefactor; 
the law-giver in the room of the rebel. The crea- 
tion was a mean theatre for so great an event, and 
the noblest creatures unworthy judges of such an 
incomprehensible performance ; its true glory was 
the approbation of its infinite contriver, and that 
he, at whose command it was done, was fully well 
pleased with it. 

Yet to us, on whose natures example has so 
much influence, it may be useful to consider that 
honourable crowd of admirers and spectators that 
this performance had, and to reflect how heaven 
beheld with veneration, what was treated on earth 
with contempt; it was a large theatre, multitudes 
as sand on the sea-shore, a glorious company. 
In scripture, angels, in comparison of men, afe 
called gods : we are not sensible of their glory ; 
which struck prophets almost dead with fear, and 
tempted an apostle to idolatry ; but these, when 
the first-begotten is brought into the world, 
(Heb. i. 6. compared with Psalm xcvii. 7.) all these 
gods are commanded to worship him ; the place 
of scripture where angels are called gods, is the 
place where they are commanded to worship 
Christ: and according to the same apostle, 



THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 239 

Heb. i.6. it was a special time of his receiving 
this glory from the hosts of heaven, when his 
glory was to be vailed among the inhabitants of 
the earth. It is evident that they were spectators 
of all that he did in that state, and no doubt they 
were attentive spectators ; they desired to look, 
as it were, with outstretched necks into these 
things, 1 Pet. i. 12. nor could they be uncon- 
cerned spectators : they were on divers accounts 
interested in it; they did not need a redemption 
themselves; but they delighted in ours: they 
loved Christ, and they loved his people: their 
love interested them in the glory of the one and 
the other. All we know of their work and office, 
as Luther expresses it, is to sing in heaven, and 
minister on earth : our redemption gave occasion 
for both; they sang for joy when it began at 
Christ's birth, Luke ii. 13. they went with glad- 
ness on messages of it before-hand, to the pro- 
phets, and to the Virgin Mary; they fed Christ in 
the desert, they attended him in his agony, and at 
his resurrection, and accompanied him, at his 
ascension : they were concerned to look into 
these things in time, that were to be remembered 
to all eternity ; and into that performance on 
earth that was to be the matter of eternal Hallelii* 
jahs in heaven. 



240 m'laurxn's discourse on 

It should not therefore hinder our esteem of 
this great work, that the great men on earth took 
no notice of it : they were but mean, blind, igno- 
rant, vulgar, compared to these powers and thrones 
just now mentioned, who beheld it with venera- 
tion : it is no disparagement to an excellent per- 
formance, that it is not admired by ignorant 
persons who do not understand it. 

The principalities in heaven understood, and 
therefore admired ; nor were the principalities and 
powers of darkness wholly ignorant of it : their 
example should not be a pattern to us ; but, what 
they beheld with anguish, we should behold with 
transport. Their plot was to make the earth, if 
possible, a province of hell; they had heard of 
that glorious counterplot; they were alarmed at 
the harbingers of it: they looked on, and saw 
their plot step by step defeated, and the projects 
of eternal mercy going on. All the universe 
therefore were interested onlookers at this blessed 
undertaking : heaven looked on with joy, and hell 
with terror, to observe the event of an enterprize 
that was contrived from everlasting, expected 
since the fall of man, and that was to be celebrated 
to all eternity. 

Thus we have before us several things that show 
the glory of the performance in view: the design, 



THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 241 

of universal importance ; the preparation, incom- 
parably solemn ; a company of the most honour- 
able attentive spectators. As to the performance 
itself, it is plain it is not a subject for the tongues 
of men ; the tongues of men are not for a subject 
above the thoughts of angels; they are but desir- 
ing to look into it, they have not seen fully 
through it ; that is the work of eternity. Men 
may speak and write of it, but it is not so pro- 
perly to describe it, as to tell that it cannot be 
described : we may write about it, but if all its 
glory were described, the world would not con- 
tain its books, John xxi. 25 : we may speak of it, 
but the most we can say about it, is to say that it 
is unspeakable : and the most that we know is, 
that it passes knowledge : it is he that performed 
this work, that can truly declare it, it is he who 
contrived, that can describe it. It is he who 
knows it : none knows the Father but the Son, or 
he to whom he shall reveal him. It is from him 
we should seek this knowledge, Eph. i, 17. What 
of it is to be had here, is but in part, 1 Cor. xiii. 
9. but it leads us to the place where it will be 
perfect. Here we think as children, we speak as 
children: yet we are not therefore to neglect 
thinking or speaking of it ; our thoughts are use- 
less without contemplating it; our speech useless 

M 



242 m'laurin's discourse on 

without praising it : the rest of the history of the 
world, except as it relates to this, is but a history 
of trifles or confusions, dreams and vapours of 
sick-brained men. What we can know of it here, 
is but little : but that little, incomparably tran- 
scends all other knowledge : and all other earthly 
things are but loss and dung to it, Phil. iii. 8. 
and 11. The least we can do, is with the angels 
to desire to look into these things, and we should 
put up these desires to him, who can satisfy them, 
that he may shine in our hearts, by the light of 
the knowledge of the glory of God, 2 Cor. iv. 6, 
The true object of this knowledge, is the glory of 
God ; the means of obtaining it, is light shining 
from God ; and as to the place into which it 
shines, it is into our hearts : we are therefore to 
desire that light from him who is light itself; 
but our prayers should be joined with other 
means ; particularly that meditation, which Paul 
recommends to Timothy, 1 Tim. iv. 15 ; we ought 
to meditate on these things so as to give our- 
selves wholly to them: our meditation should 
be as lively, and as like to seeing the object before 
us, as possible : but it is not by strength of ima- 
gination that the soul is profited in this case, but 
by having the eyes of the understanding enlight- 
ened, Eph. i. 18. 

The makers and worshippers of images pretend 



THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 243 



to help us in this matter, by pictures presented to 
the eye of the body : but it is not the eye of sense 
or force of imagination, but the eye of faith, that 
can give us true notions, and right conceptions of 
this object, 2 Cor. v. 16. Men may paint Christ's 
outward sufferings, but not that inward excellency 
from whence their virtue flowed, that is, his glory 
in himself, and his goodness to us. Men may 
paint one crucified, but how can that distinguish 
the Saviour from the criminals on each side of 
him ; we may paint his hands and his feet fixed to 
the cross, but who can paint how these hands used 
always to be stretched forth for relieving the 
afflicted, and curing the diseased ; or how these 
feet went always about doing good; and how 
they cure more diseases and do more good now 
than ever? we may paint the outward appearance 
of his sufferings, but not the inward bitterness or 
invisible causes of them: men can paint the 
cursed tree, but not the curse of the law that 
made it so : men can paint Christ bearing the 
cross to Calvary, but not Christ bearing the sins 
of many : we may describe the nails piercing his 
sacred flesh, but who can describe eternal justice 
piercing both flesh and spirit? we may describe 
the soldier's spear, but not the arrows of the 
Almighty; the cup of vinegar which he but tasted, 
but not the cup of wrath which he drank out to 



244 m'laurin's discourse on 



the lowest dregs; the derision of the Jews, but not 
the desertion of the Almighty forsaking his Son, 
that he might never forsake us who were his 
enemies. 

These sorrows he suffered, and the benefits he 
purchased, are equally beyond description. 
Though we describe his hands and his feet 
mangled and pierced, who can describe, how in 
one hand as it were he grasped multitudes of 
souls ready to sink into ruin, and in the other 
hand an everlasting inheritance to give them ; or 
how these bruised feet crushed the old serpent's 
head, and trampled on Death and Hell, and Sin 
the author of both. We may describe the blood 
issuing from his body, but not the waters of life 
streaming from the same source, oceans of spiritual 
and eternal blessings : we may paint how that 
blood covered his own body, but not how it 
sprinkles the souls of others, yea, sprinkles many 
nations: we may paint the crown of thorns he 
wore, but not the crown of glory he purchased . 
Happy were it for us if our faith had as lively 
views of this object, as our imaginations oft-times 
have of incomparably less important objects; then 
would the pale face of our Saviour shew more 
powerful attractives than all the brightest objects 
in nature besides. Notwithstanding the gloomy 
aspect of death, it would discover such trans- 



THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 245 

cendent majesty as would make all the glory in 
the world lose its relish with us ; we should see 
then, indeed, the awful frowns of justice, but these 
frowns are not at us, but at our enemies, our mur- 
derers, that is, our sins. The cross shews Christ 
pitying his own murderers, but shews no pity to 
our murderers; therefore we may see the majesty 
of eternal justice tempered with the mildness of 
infinite compassion : infinite pity is an object 
worth looking to, especially by creatures in dis- 
tress and danger; there Death doth appear in 
state, as the executioner of the law, but there he 
appears also deprived of his sting with regard to 
us : there we may hear also the sweetest melody 
in the world to the awakened sinner ; that peace- 
speaking blood, that speaks better things than 
that of Abel ; the sweetest and loudest voice in 
the world, louder than the thunder on Sinai : its 
voice reacheth heaven and earth, pleading with 
God, in behalf of men, and beseeching men to be 
reconciled to God ; speaking the most comfort- 
able and the most seasonable things in the world, 
to objects in distress and danger, that is, salvation 
and deliverance. 

Of the various views we can take of this blessed 
work, this is the most suitable, to consider it as 
the most glorious deliverance that ever was or 
will be. Other remarkable deliverances of God's 



246 m'laurin's discourse on 

people are considered as shadows and figures of 
this : Moses, Joshua, David, and Zerubabel, were 
types of this great Joshua : according to his name, 
so is he Jesus a deliverer. The number of the 
persons delivered, shew the glory of this deliver- 
ance to be unparalleled ; it was but one single 
nation that Moses delivered, though indeed it was 
a glorious deliverance, relieving sixty thousand at 
once, and a great deal more; but this was incom- 
parably more extensive : the apostle John calls 
the multitude of the Redeemed, a multitude that 
no man could number, (Rev. vii. 9.) of all nations, 
kindreds, people, and tongues. The unparalleled 
glory of this deliverance appears not only in the 
number of the delivered, but also in the nature of 
the deliverance. It was not men's bodies only 
that it delivered, but immortal souls, more valu- 
able than the world, Matth. xvi. 36 ; it was not 
from such a bondage as that of Egypt, but one 
as far beyond it, as eternal misery is worse 
than temporal bodily toil.: so that nothing can 
equal the wretchedness of the state from which 
they are delivered, but the blessedness of that to 
which they are brought. 

But here we should not forget the opposition 
made against this deliverance : it was the greatest 
that can withstand any good design. The apostle 
(Eph. vi. 12.) teaches to consider the opposition 



THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 247 

of flesh and blood, as far inferior to that oi princi- 
palities and powers, and spiritual wickedness in 
high places : the devil is called the god of this 
world, 2 Cor. iv. 4. and himself and his angels, 
the rulers of the darkness of this world, Eph. vi. 
12. They had obtained a dominion over the 
world, (excepting that small corner Judea), for 
many ages, by the consent of the inhabitants : 
they found them not only pliable, l>ut fond of 
their chains, and in love with their bondage. 
But they had heard of this intended enterprise of 
supreme power and mercy, this invasion and de- 
scent upon their dominions : they had heard of 
the design of bruising their head, overturning 
their government, making their slaves to revolt. 
Long experience had made them expert in the 
black art of perdition ; long success made them 
confident, and their malice still pushed them on 
to opposition, whatever be the success. As they 
were no doubt apprised of this designed deli- 
verance, and alarmed at the signs of its approach ; 
they made all preparations to oppose it, mustered 
all their forces, employed all their skill, and, as 
all was at stake, made their last efforts for a kind 
of decisive engagement; they armed every pro- 
per instrument, and set every engine of spiritual 
destruction a working; temptations, persecutions, 



248 M 'la u kin's discourse on 

violence, slander, treachery, counterfeit Messiahs, 
and the like. 

Their adversary appeared in a form that did 
not seem terrible ; not only as a man, but as one 
despised of the people, Psalm xxii. 6. accounted 
as a worm and no man : but this made the event 
more glorious : it was a spectacle worth the ad- 
miration of the universe, to see the despised 
Galilean tarn all the artillery of hell back upon 
itself: to see one in the likeness of the Son of 
man, wresting the keys of hell and death out of 
the hands of the devil : to see him entangling the 
rulers of darkness in their own nets, and making 
them ruin their designs with their own stratagems. 
They made one disciple betray him, and another 
deny him ; they made the Jews accuse him, and 
the Romans crucify him : but the wonderful coun- 
sellor was more than match for the old serpent ; 
and the lion of the tribe of Judah too hard for the 
roaring lion. The devices of these powers of 
darkness were in the event made means of spoil- 
ing and triumphing over themselves, Col. ii. 15. 
The greatest cruelty of devils, and their instru- 
ments, was made subservient to the designs of 
the infinite mercy of God; and that hideous sin 
of the sons of men, over-ruled in a perfectly holy 
manner, for making an end of sin, and bringing 



THE CROSS OP CHRIST, 



249 



in everlasting righteousness, Dan. ix. 24. The 
opposition made to this deliverance did but ad- 
vance its glory, particularly the opposition it met 
with from those for whose good it was intended 5 
that is, sinners themselves ; this served to en- 
hance the glory of mysterious long-suffering and 
mercy. 

It would take a long time to insist on all the 
opposition he met with, both from the enemy of 
sinners, and from sinners themselves ; but at last 
he weathered the storm, surmounted difficulties, 
led captivity captive, obtained a perfect conquest, 
purchased an everlasting inheritance, founded an 
everlasting kingdom, triumphed on the cross, died 
with the publishing his victory in his mouth, that 
it was finished. 

The world is represented as silent before the 
Lord, when he rose up to work this great deli- 
verance. And, as was shown before, no part of 
the world was unconcerned in it : the expectation 
was great, but the performance could not but sur- 
pass it : every part of it was perfect, and every 
circumstance graceful; nothing deficient, nothing 
superfluous, nothing but what became the dignity 
of the person, and the eternal wisdom of the 
contrivance. Every thing was suited to the glo- 
rious design, and all the means proportioned to 
the end : the foundation of the everlasting king- 



250 



m'laurin's discourse on 



dorn was laid, before it was observed by the men 
that opposed it, and so laid that it was impossible 
for the gates of hell to prevail against it; all 
things adjusted for completing the deliverance, 
and for securing it against all endeavours and at- 
tempts to overturn it. The great Deliverer in that 
low disguise wrought through his design, so as 
none could oppose it without advancing it, to the 
full satisfaction of that infinite wisdom that de- 
vised it, and the eternal admiration of the crea- 
tures that beheld it. 

The Father was well pleased ; heaven and earth 
rejoiced, and was astonished; the powers of hell 
fell down like lightning : in heaven, loud accla- 
mations and applauses, and new songs of praises 
began that are not ended yet, and never will ; they 
will still increase \ still new redeemed criminals 
from earth, saved from the gates of hell, and en- 
tering the gates of heaven, with a new song of 
praise in their mouths, add to the ever-growing 
melody, of which they shall never weary ; for that 
is their rest, their labour of love, never to rest, 
day nor night, giving praise and glory to him that 
sits on the throne, and to the Lamb at his right 
hand, who redeemed them from all nations and 
tongues, washing them in his own blood, and 
making them kings and priests unto God. 

But still an objection may be made concerning 



THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 



251 



the little honour and respect this work met with 
on earth, where it was performed. This, duly 
considered, instead of being an objection, is a 
commendation of it. Sin had so corrupted the 
taste of mankind, that it had been a kind of re- 
flection on this work, if it had suited it : herein 
the beauty of it appears, that it was above that 
depraved, wretched taste which it was designed 
to cure ; and that it did actually work that change 
on innumerable multitudes of nations. 

If the cross of Christ met with much contempt 
on earth, it met also with incomparable honour: 
it made the greatest revolution in the world that 
ever happened since the creation, or that ever will 
happen till Shiloh come again: a more glorious, 
a more lasting change than ever was produced, 
by all the princes and conquerors in the world : it 
conquered multitudes of souls, and established a 
sovereignty over men's thoughts, wills, and affec- 
tions : this was a conquest to which human 
power hath no proportion. Persecutors turned 
apostles : and vast numbers of Pagans, after 
knowing the cross of Christ, suffered death and 
torments cheerfully to honour it. The growing- 
light shone from east to west; and opposition 
was not only useless, but subservient to it. The 
changes it produced, are sometimes described by 
the prophets in the most magnificent expressions ; 



252 m'laurin's discourse on 



thus for instance, Isa. xxxv. 7. It turned the 
parched ground into pools of waters, made the habi- 
tations of dragons to become places of grass, and 
reeds, and rushes; made wildernesses to bud and 
blossom as the rose. It wrought this change among 
us in the utmost isles of the Gentiles : we ought 
to compare our present privileges with the state 
of our forefathers before they knew this blessed 
object ; and we shall find it owing to the glory of 
the cross of Christ, that we who are met here to 
day, to worship the living God in order to the 
eternal enjoyment of him, are not worshipping 
sun, moon, and stars, or sacrificing to idols. 

But the chief effects of the cross of Christ, and 
which show most of its glory, are its inward 
effects on the souls of men. There, (as was be- 
fore hinted) it makes a new creation ; Christ is 
formed in them, the source and the hope of glory ; 
this is a glorious workmanship; the image of 
God on the soul of man: but since these effects 
of the cross of Christ are secret, and the shame 
put upon it oft-times too public, and since human 
nature is so much influenced by example ; it will 
be useful to take such a view of the honour done 
to this object, as may arm us against the bad ex- 
ample of stupid unbelievers. 

The cross of Christ is an object of such incom- 
parable brightness, that it spread a glory round it 



THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 253 



to all the nations of the earth, all the corners of 
the universe, all the generations of time, and all 
the ages of eternity. The greatest actions or 
events that ever happened on earth, filled with 
their splendour and influence but a moment of 
time, and a point of space : the splendour of this 
great object fills immensity, and eternity. If we 
take a right view of its glory, we shall see it con- 
templated with attention, spreading influence, and 
attracting looks from times, past, present, and to 
come ; heaven, earth, and hell, angels, saints, 
devils. We shall see it to be both the object of 
the deepest admiration of the creatures, and the 
perfect approbation of the infinite Creator; we 
shall see the best part of mankind, the church of 
God, for four thousand years looking forward to it 
before it happened 5 new generations yet unborn 
rising up to admire and honour it, in continual 
successions, till time shall be no more ; innume- 
rable multitudes of angels and saints looking back 
to it with holy transport, to the remotest ages of 
eternity. Other glories decay, by length of time: 
if the splendour of this object change, it will be 
only by increasing. The visible sun would spend 
his beams in process of time, and as it were grow 
dim with age ; this object hath a rich stock of 
beams, which eternity cannot exhaust: if saints 
and angels grow in knowledge, the splendour of 



254 m'laurin's discourse on 

this object will be still increasing; it is un- 
belief that intercepts its beams ; uubelief takes 
place only on earth, there is no such thing 
in heaven or in hell. It will be a great part of 
future blessedness, to remember the object that 
purchased it; and of future punishment, to re- 
member the object that offered deliverance from 
it : it will add life to the beams of love in heaven, 
and make the flames of hell burn fiercer; its 
beams will not only adorn the regions of light, 
but pierce the regions of darkness : it will be the 
desire of the saints in light, and the great eye-sore 
of the prince of darkness and his subjects. 

Its glory produces powerful effects wherever it 
shines: they who behold this glory are trans- 
formed into the same image, 2 Cor. iii. 18. An 
Ethiopian may look long enough to the visible 
sun before it change his black colour ; but this 
does it : it melts cold and frozen hearts, it breaks 
stony hearts, it pierces adamants, it penetrates 
through thick darkness ; how justly is it called 
marvellous light? IPet.ii. 9. It gives eyes to 
the blind to look to itself, and not only to the 
blind, but to the dead : it is the light of life, a 
powerful light, its energy is beyond the force of 
thunder ; and it is more mild than the dew on the 
tender grass. 

But it is impossible fully to describe all its 



THE CROSS OF CHRIST* 255 



effects, unless we could fully reckon up all the 
spiritual and eternal evils it prevents, all the 
riches of grace and glory it purchases, and all the 
divine perfections it displays. It has this pecu- 
liar to it, that as it is full of glory itself, it com- 
municates glory to all that behold it aright : it 
gives them a glorious robe of righteousness; their 
God is their glory ; it calls them to glory and 
virtue ; it gives them the spirit of God and of 
glory ; it gives them joy unspeakable, and full of 
glory here, and an exceeding great and eternal 
weight of glory hereafter. 

It communicates a glory to all other objects, 
according as they have any relation to it: it 
adorns the universe; it gives a lustre to nature, 
and to providence : it is the greatest glory of this 
lower world, that its Creator was for a while its 
inhabitant: a poor landlord thinks it a lasting 
honour to his cottage, that he has once lodged a 
Prince or Emperor ; with how much more reason 
may our poor cottage, this earth, be proud of it, 
that the Lord of glory was its tenant from his 
birth to his death, yea, that he rejoiced in the 
habitable parts of it, before it had a bednnino- 
even from everlasting, Prov. viii. 31. 

It is the glory of the world that he who formed 
it, dwelt on it; of the air, that he breathed in it; 
of the sun, that it shone on him; of the ground, 



256 m'laurin's discourse, &c. 



that it bore him ; of the sea, that he walked on 
it ; of the elements, that they nourished him ; of 
the waters, that they refreshed him ; of us men, 
that he lived and died among us, yea, that he 
lived and died for us ; that he assumed our flesh 
and blood, and carried it to the highest heavens, 
where it shines as the eternal ornament and won- 
der of the creation of God. It gives also a lustre 
to providence : it is the chief event that adorns 
the records of time, and enlivens the history of 
the universe : it is the glory of the various great 
lines of providence, that they point at this as their 
centre: that they prepared the way for its com- 
ing; that after its coming they are subservient to 
the ends of it ; though in a way indeed to us at 
present mysterious and unsearchable: thus we 
know that they either fulfil the promises of the 
crucified Jesus, or his threatenings : and show 
either the happiness of receiving him, or the 
misery of rejecting him. 



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